TheJakartaPost
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Australia's decision not changing France's strategy in Indo-Pacific, Macron says
Macron told a news conference the deal cancellation would have a relatively limited impact on France, concerning a few hundred jobs.
Change Size
French President Emmanuel Macron (2nd left) and Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (center) stand on the deck of HMAS Waller, a Collins-class submarine operated by the Royal Australian Navy, at Garden Island in Sydney on May 2, 2018. Macron arrived in Australia on May 1 on a rare visit by a French president with the two sides expected to agree on greater cooperation in the Pacific to counter a rising China. (AFP/Brendan Esposito)
A
ustralia's decision to cancel a French nuclear submarines deal will not change France's strategy in Indo-Pacific region, President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday.
Macron told a news conference the deal cancellation would have a relatively limited impact on France, concerning a few hundred jobs.
Australia cancelled this month its order of a fleet of conventional submarines from France and said it would instead build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines with US and British technology under the new AUKUS security partnership.
On Tuesday, France signed a deal with Greece to sell three new frigates as Paris seeks to bounce back from the loss of a big submarine contract with Australia.
The strategic defence and security cooperation pact signed by the countries' presidents is also part of efforts to increase European military autonomy.
"It contributes to European security, to the strengthening of Europe's strategic autonomy and sovereignty, and thus to international peace and security," Macron told a news conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, as quoted by Reuters.
Mitsotakis told reporters: "This will tie us for decades."
