Anthony Albanese has revealed the financial cost of Australia’s deal with the French naval group following the removal of the Attack Class submarine program.
Australia will pay hundreds of millions of dollars to the French naval group as part of an agreement set by the new Albanian government following the elimination of the Attack Class submarine program.
The $ 90 billion submarine deal was ruled out last September by the Coalition as part of Australia’s new AUKUS trilateral security partnership with the United States and the United Kingdom.
Instead, Australia will receive eight nuclear submarines under the AUKUS alliance.
“I am pleased to announce this morning that the Australian government has reached an agreement with the Naval Group to conclude the attack class submarine program,” Albanese told reporters on Saturday.
“The former government took the decision to discard the contract on the basis of advice on capacity requirements for the Australian Defense Force, which was accepted by Labor in opposition.
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“But the way this decision was handled has caused a great deal of tension in the relationship between Australia and France.”
Albanese said that while most of the details of the deal will remain confidential due to its commercial nature, he was able to reveal that Australia will pay Naval Group about $ 830 million, which he said was a “fair deal”. and fair. ”
“I can outline the key points for you this morning. Firstly, with this agreement we will establish a line in the contracts. Secondly, as part of the agreement, Australia will pay the naval group 555 million euros, which is equivalent to to about A $ 830 million. “He said.
“This is a fair and equitable solution that has been reached. It also follows the discussions I have had with President (Emmanuel) Macron and I thank him for these discussions and the cordial way in which we are re-establishing a better relationship between Australia and France. .
“It raises the total cost of the old government’s failed policy to $ 3.4 billion. That saves $ 5.5 billion that the Senate was told would result from this program, but it still represents extraordinary waste. of a government that was always important in the announcement. but not good in delivery. “
The Prime Minister said he wanted to “thank the Naval Group for the positive and professional way it has committed itself to Australian officials to reach this agreement”.
In September last year, then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison defended the decision to phase out the program, saying the French should have known that Australia had “deep and serious” concerns about submarines and that Australia was ready to withdraw from the agreement reached in 2016.
“I think they would have had every reason to know that we have a deep and serious concern that the capacity of the attack class submarine does not meet our strategic interests and we had made it very clear that we would make a decision based on our national interest. strategic, “he said.
Morrison had stressed that the decision to discard the French deal was decided on whether the submarines were suitable for Australia’s strategic interests.
“Our strategic judgment based on the best possible intelligence and defense advice was that it would not, and therefore, to move forward when we can ensure supreme submarine capability to support our defense operations, it would have been negligent for us not. a “, he said.
France recalled its ambassador to Australia amid fury over AUKUS and the cancellation of the submarine agreement, which was described by French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian as a “stab at the back “.
Macron later accused Morrison of lying about Australia’s decision to cancel a $ 90 billion submarine contract in favor of supplying nuclear submarines under AUKUS.