Paris. September 21. INTERFAX-Canberra's entry into the AUKUS partnership and the rejection of the contract with Paris for the construction of submarines may lead to Australia receiving submarines a decade later than planned - in 2040, French Defense Ministry spokesman Herve Grandjean said.
"(Instead of 2030 - IF) now it will be more likely to be 2040, " the Associated Press agency quotes him as saying.
According to Grandjean, Canberra's decision to cancel the contract with Paris is "bad news" for Australia. At the same time, he recalled that the extension of the delivery period of submarines will occur against the background of how quickly China is increasing its military power.
He also said that France has built more than 250 submarines for more than 120 years, and the country has rich knowledge and engineering skills in this area. Grandjean noted that non-nuclear submarines, which France proposed to build to Australia, are apparently less noticeable for detection means than nuclear submarines.
He added that on the same day as the AUKUS partnership was announced, the Australian side sent a message to Paris that Canberra was satisfied with the state of the joint defense program with France to create submarines.
In turn, French Defense Minister Florence Parly, speaking in the French parliament on Tuesday, said that Australia, "destroying trust between allies," made a "strategic turn" and completely entrusted its future to the United States against the threat from China.
According to her, the United States may want to increase the level of escalation with China, adding to it, probably, a "military dimension".
Last week, US President Joe Biden, Australian Prime Ministers Scott Morrison and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced the creation of a new trilateral security partnership - AUKUS. The first major initiative of AUKUS will be the construction of a nuclear submarine fleet for Australia. This provides for the refusal of Canberra from the contract for the construction of submarines with the French company Naval Group for $90 billion.
