‘We thought we were mates’: French ambassador
laments subterfuge en route to Sydney airport
Jean-Pierre Thebault was angry about Aukus as he left
Australia on Saturday night, saying: ‘It’s like in a couple, you know, when you
commit … you don’t run away’
Australia ‘regrets’ France’s recall of ambassador
Daniel
Hurst Foreign affairs and defence correspondent
@danielhurstbne
Sun 19 Sep
2021 01.28 BST
The French
ambassador to Australia was in a car heading to Sydney airport for an urgent
flight back home when he revealed he was “sad like any decent person would be”.
Jean-Pierre
Thebault left Australia on Saturday night after Australia’s $90bn submarine
deal with France was scrapped late last week, causing an unexpected rupture in
the relationship between two friendly countries.
“I’ve seen
and learned how deep for an Australian it is when you commit to watch each
other’s back. What makes me sad is that we thought we were mates and we were
stabbed in the back,” Thebault told Guardian Australia on the way from Canberra
to Sydney airport.
The
experienced diplomat was recalled to Paris, along with his counterpart in
Washington, as the French government weighs up how to respond to what Biden
administration officials called “the biggest strategic step that Australia has
taken in generations”.
That big
step involved the US and the UK agreeing to share sensitive technology and help
Australia build at least eight nuclear-powered submarines, a capability the
allies say is needed to respond to growing concerns about China’s military
assertiveness. The collateral damage from the deal – hatched among the Aukus
allies in secret – was Australia’s existing plans with France’s Naval Group for
12 diesel-electric submarines.
Thebault
maintains France was not given any forewarning.
There were
Australian press reports earlier this year that the government was conducting a
review that could result in the contract being terminated, amid concerns about
cost increases and schedule slippages. In June, Australian defence officials
told a Senate committee they were doing “prudent” contingency planning.
But
Thebault says “at no point, in no way” was France given “any clear signal that
the contract would be brought to an end”. France thought those contractual
issues were being resolved and conversations would continue.
“I can only
say that the sense of treason is very strong,” Thebault, who started his
posting in Australia 10 months ago, said from the car.
“And I use
those words because of what has now transpired from apparently reliable
sources, which have not received any official denial, that it was in process
for 18 months. It was intentionally decided to keep France completely in the
dark at the same time that several officials of Australia were not only
discussing with France the current [submarine] program but were also saying
they were willing to make this program a success and a symbol of the bilateral
relationship.”
French
ambassador Jean-Pierre Thebault said ‘at no point, in no way’ was France given
any sign its submarine contract with Australia would end.
Asked
whether “treason” – meaning betraying one’s own country – was taking it too
far, the ambassador said he didn’t mean it literally. He said the “sense of
treason” was strong “because of lack of respect, and because of lack of
transparency, because we were committed to a partnership”.
“We are not
speaking about normal contracts; we are speaking about a strategic partnership
where France was sharing state military secrets with Australia and was
committed to creating a sovereign industry in Australia according to the
standards set by Australia,” Thebault said.
“It’s like
in a couple, you know, when you commit. After that, you have duties and
opportunities … the duty is decency, the duty is transparency. If, for one
reason or another, you feel that you have to change your mind, you say it – you
don’t run away.”
A defence
source said the Australians first went to the UK’s Royal Navy to discuss
Canberra’s desire to abandon the French contract and build nuclear-powered
submarines with the UK and US instead. Having secured British support, the
Australians then went to the Biden administration.
It was left
to the Australians to break the news to the French, but there seemed to be
divisions in Canberra about the best way of going about it.
“Some
Australians wanted to ring up one week and say we’re so sorry, we’re putting
out the diesel submarine contract, and ring up the next week, and say we just
want you to know that we found a better submarine and it’s British,” the
defence source said. “There was another school of thought that said: don’t do
it like that. They’ll see through it and it will be worse because it will look
duplicitous.”
In the end,
neither side won. The French were not told before details began to leak to the
Australian and US media on Wednesday.
The French
president, Emmanuel Macron, welcomed the Australian prime minister, Scott
Morrison, to Paris in June, with Macron declaring the French-delivered
submarines would “reinforce the position of Australia and contribute to
Australia’s sovereignty and strategic autonomy”.
This was
just days after Morrison joined the British prime minister, Boris Johnson, and
the US president, Joe Biden, for a trilateral meeting on the sidelines of the
G7 summit in Cornwall. It is now believed the three leaders discussed defence
cooperation plans at that meeting leading to the eventual announcement of the
so-called Aukus pact.
Morrison
told reporters on Thursday he had been “very clear” in the talks with Macron
about “the strategic situation in the Indo-Pacific” and that there were “very
real issues about whether a conventional submarine capability would be able to
address those going forward”.
Thebault –
who was in Paris during that visit – offers this version: “The prime minister,
to our understanding, signalled that there were questions raised about the
evolving situation in the region … but what was agreed is that this
conversation would continue.”
Just two
weeks before the Aukus announcement, Australian ministers Marise Payne and
Peter Dutton met by video link with their French counterparts to herald
ever-strengthening ties. According to the official joint statement, the four
ministers “underlined the importance of the future submarine program”.
Thebault –
an experienced foreign affairs official who has served as ambassador to Ireland
and who oversaw France’s preparations to host the G7 in 2018-19 – says the late
August talks were “very positive and friendly” but it was now apparent there
was “no sincerity in the discussion”.
The timing
is also a source of tension: France had been encouraging the European Union to
adopt a “very, very active” Indo-Pacific policy. The EU’s announcement of its
forward-leaning regional strategy coincided, Thebault says, with Australia
revealing its decision “to renege on its word, commitment and signature”.
“This can
only have deep, deep impact, a long-term impact, not only on the bilateral
relationship but also on the relations between Australia and European
countries, and also, perhaps, more globally, because such an attitude and a way
of treating a friend and ally is not something that will pass unnoticed.”
The
Australian government says it “notes with regret” France’s decision to recall
its ambassador.
Dutton on
Sunday told Sky News he understood “that the French are upset at the
cancellation of the contract”.
“But in the
end, our job is to act in our national interest, and suggestions that the
concerns hadn’t been flagged by the Australian government defy, frankly, what’s
on the public record and certainly what was said publicly over a long period of
time.”
The defence
minister insisted Australia wanted to work “very closely with the French … into
the future”.
Some
Australian politicians believe France may have overreacted to the decision in
part because of upcoming presidential elections, with Macron facing a
first-round vote in April. “The French are about to go through an election
season,” said Jason Falinski, a Sydney-based Liberal MP, who argues recalling
the ambassadors “is what the French government needed to do in terms of sending
a signal to their people” about standing up for French interests.
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