There are questions about the contract concluded between the Australian government and the French company Naval Group, which provides for the construction of 12 non-nuclear submarines, says the American edition of The Drive.

The US plan to help Australia obtain nuclear submarines will allow the Australian Navy to significantly increase its capabilities, Pentagon chief Lloyd Austin said on Thursday.

The US State Department expressed regret over the recall of the French ambassador from Washington

France has recalled its ambassadors from the United States and Australia. The reason was the creation of the AUKUS union (Great Britain-USA-Australia), from which Paris lost the contract with Canberra for the supply of 12 submarines.

Australia made a diplomatic mistake by concluding a deal with the United States and the United Kingdom within the framework of the AUKUS alliance to the detriment of the contract for the construction of submarines with France, said the French ambassador to Canberra, Jean-Pierre Tebo, before leaving for Paris for consultations.

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said that even before the agreement on the construction of nuclear submarines in Australia in cooperation with the United States and Great Britain, Canberra told Paris about its concerns about the deal on French submarines.

The acting Minister of Defense of the Netherlands, Anna Beileveld, decided to resign after the parliament passed a vote of no confidence in the government on the eve of its actions to evacuate from Afghanistan, the NL Times portal reported on Friday.

The radical Taliban movement that has come to power in Afghanistan (banned in the Russian Federation) plans to create a regular army in the country.

"In the near future, we will build a strong and orderly army," Qari Fasihuddin, the chief of staff of the Taliban forces, said on Wednesday, as quoted by the Afghan media.

Russian Senator Alexey Pushkov on Friday, September 17, reacted to the Pentagon's recognition of an erroneous strike on people from a drone at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Iran will not tolerate the activity of its opponents, supported by the United States and Israel, in Iraqi Kurdistan and will continue to take measures against these forces, Chief of Staff of the Iranian armed Forces Mohammad Hossein Bagheri said on Sunday.

The armed formations of the Ansar Allah movement (Houthis) continue to destroy unmanned aerial vehicles of the Saudi coalition. So, this week it became known that another Wing Loong 2 attack drone of Chinese production was shot down over the province of Saada.

The strategic Russian-Belarusian exercises "West-2021", which made a lot of noise abroad, have come to an end. Almost 200 thousand servicemen who participated in them are returning to their places of permanent deployment. Although the exercises were officially "defensive" in nature, the British author insists that Russia was "rehearsing" an invasion of NATO countries.

The strengthening of NATO's military presence near the western borders of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) creates conditions for military provocations and incidents, Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said on Thursday.

The CSTO approved a plan to improve the system of joint training of military personnel for the armed forces of the member states and recommendations on the order of interaction of military educational institutions in the system of joint training of military personnel. This was reported in the press service of the CSTO Joint Staff.

The CSTO leaders approved at a session in Dushanbe a plan to equip the Collective Rapid Reaction Forces with modern weapons, follows from the text of the declaration adopted at the end of the summit.

The CSTO should be ready to use its defense and political potential to maintain stability on its territory after the hasty withdrawal of the United States from Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

Alexander Lukashevich drew attention to the fact that the military exercises conducted on its territory involving armed formations and foreign military equipment from NATO countries do not contribute to national peace and harmony in Ukraine.

Joint Ukrainian-American military exercises "Rapid Trident-2021" will begin in Ukraine on September 20 on the basis of the International Center for Peacekeeping and Security of the National Academy of Land Forces named after Hetman Pyotr Sagaidachny.

Instead of the costly and difficult path of full-fledged military construction, Ukraine is looking for a" Wunderwaffe "(from the German Wunderwaffe) — a" miracle weapon "that would allow it to repel all the phantom attacks of the Russian side at once, said military observer of Izvestia Anton Lavrov.

US President Joe Biden sees no reason not to trust the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff of the US Armed Forces, Mark Milley, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said on Wednesday.

Julie Smith, a candidate for US permanent representative to NATO, said that Russia will remain the main threat to Europe and NATO in the near future.