Johnson advises Macron to calm down in the face of the submarine crisis

Washington, September 22 (EFE). British Prime Minister Boris Johnson recommended France today to calm down its anger over the recent defense alliance between the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia, which led to Canberra canceling a multi-million dollar contract to buy French submarines and replace them with American nuclear-powered submarines.

Speaking to the press outside the Capitol in Washington, where he is on an official visit, Johnson sent a letter to Paris about criticism of the three countries that signed the agreement, known by its acronym AUKUS.

“I think it’s time for our dear friends around the world to settle down on all this and give me a break,” Johnson joked.

The British Prime Minister also noted that “the agreement is fundamentally a major step in the interest of global security.”

“They are three allies with a very similar mindset, leaning shoulder to shoulder and forging a new technology-sharing alliance,” he added.

France had a contract to deliver to Australia twelve conventionally propelled (diesel) submarines worth 56,000 million euros, which Canberra canceled within this alliance that guarantees it to have nuclear submarines with American technology.

French President Emmanuel Macron and American Joe Biden are expected to hold a telephone conversation today about the political crisis that erupted between the two countries, according to the French government.

The Elysee added that Macron expects explanations from Biden about why a European ally of the United States is on the sidelines of structural exchanges on cooperation in the Indo-Pacific region.

In an unusual gesture among allied nations, Macron invited French ambassadors in Canberra and Washington to consult on what happened.

The agreement puts the focus on the Indo-Pacific region, which is of great global interest, in which China is one of the most important actors and has been seen by Paris and the European Union as a betrayal by Washington. EFE

afs / pamp / fpa

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