MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st September, 2021) The AUKUS deal between Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom is an offense to France and cleaves the Western community, the leader of the European People's Party (EEP), the largest group in the European Parliament, said on Monday.
On Wednesday, Australia canceled a $66 billion deal with France on submarines and entered a new security partnership, AUKUS, with the US and the UK, which will help Canberra develop its own nuclear-powered submarine fleet.
"The #AUKUS deal is a diplomatic offence to France, and it unnecessarily splits the West in the face of China's assertiveness in the pacific," EEP leader Manfred Weber wrote on Twitter.
The official added that Europe should keep its unity and rely not only on the economic might when defending its interests.
On Thursday, French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called the move of Australia as a "stab in the back," underlining that the trust had been undermined. Paris also said that it was waiting for explanations from Canberra, as well as from Washington.
On Friday, Le Drian announced that French ambassadors to the US and Australia were immediately recalled to Paris following the decision of Australia.
