French go mad about America's behind-their-back submarine deal with Australia

The love-in between Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron, first embedded in the French president's invitation to Bastille Day celebrations, is now sitting in ashes after what is seen as a mighty betrayal by Trump's successor, the nice and easygoing Joe Biden. There is a row of huge-scale proportions going on between Washington and Paris and to a lesser extent with London over the deal announced on Wednesday for Australia to cooperate with the US and Britain to build eight nuclear-powered hunter-killer submarines armed with Tomahawak cruise missiles. France thought it had its own submarine deal with Australia all wrapped up and underway after an agreement was signed in 2016 by Canberra for the French to build advanced diesel-electric submarines. The programme has been going on since then and rising in cost. Alarmingly. Scott Morrison, the current Australian prime minister, decided the French deal was going pearshaped and without telling the French whispered into Biden's ear at the G7 summit in Cornwall that he fancied having nuclear-powered submarines which he thought, quite rightly, would be far more capable than the French conventionally-powered boats and better suited to the new "don't mention the war" building up with China in the Pacific. Biden and Boris who was also brought into the secret little chat thought it was a thunderously good idea - lots of money and jobs for US and British industry - and frightfully sensible strategic thinking by Scott. Or is it now Scottie? The trouble is it was all done in the most skulduggery way, all top secret and not a word to America's oldest ally, the French. So when the three-way deal was announced on Wednesday, the French ambassador in Washington had been given just two hours' notice of what the three leaders were going to say. To describe Paris as spitting mad barely scratches the surface of how Macron and co felt. Australia had already spent more than $1 billion on the French subs and now they were going to scrap the whole deal and go nuclear with the Americans. The first thing to say is that Scott Morrison is right. There is no question that having nuclear-powered submarines with Tomahawaks makes a helluva lot more sense in today's world than relying on diesel-electric boats, however quiet and effective they are. Nuclear boats can patrol the Pacific for three or four months undetected without coming up for air - and food. Diesel boats can patrol only for a few weeks before needing to surface for fuel and food replenishments. So, in terms of strategy and China and future threats in the Pacific, there is no argument. But to screw France, an ally and friend, in such a brutal manner will have long-term negative implications for the Nato alliance because Paris and others will see the US and UK cosying up without a thought for the western alliance. And the whole episode will be seen by China as a dig at them. Which it is of course. How much of this was thought through by Biden, Boris and their teams of advisers I don't know but clearly the decision was taken because it was a win win deal for the US and UK and a good move by Australia. To hell with the French, some adviser might possibly have said. The trouble is with these sort of top secret deals is that it was never going to be possible for either the Amricans or the British or the Australians to give long notice to the French because then they would have kicked up a huge fuss and got their lawyers involved. Thus, the two hours' notice was not surprising. I feel sorry for the French but in the defence procurement business there is no place for sympathy and kindness. It IS brutal because there is so much money involved. The French meanwhile need to reflect on the deal they signed with Australia for the diesel-electric submarines. Costs were spiralling and that surely must be their fault. So even if China was not the ogre in the Pacific, Autralia might have scrapped the French deal anyway for sheer value-for-money reasons. However, it's a diplomatic disaster and the French are going to have sore heads for a long, long time and Biden needs to do something to make friends with them again.