Well, that didn't take long. Only a few days after US/French relations took a dip due to Australia breaking a contract with France to build submarines relations are rapidly on the mend. Courtesy of a phone call between Biden and Macron the French ambassador will return to Washington. https://apnews.com/article/joe-biden-europe-france-paris-australia-d9de6e1273e59f49c73ef5ca8474f474 This really shouldn't come as a surprise. There was always a fair bit of theatrics in the French response and it was predicted that the French ambassador would not be gone for long. The only people left to care about this are political partisans. The real world is rapidly moving on.
Translation: Biden is going to need a month to figure out how on earth he is going to fit French penis into his mouth when it’s already stuffed full of Chinese and Taliban extremities.
In the car park interview when the Australian French ambassador was leaving, he was basically implying "everything's ok", as well. The media seems to cherry pick the bad parts out of these exchanges.
It was always theatrics, especially the US side of it. The US is too important for any Western nation to ignore. Macron needed to be seen to do something and he did. Australia is a slightly different issue. We aren't important to Europe & we are a long way away. France can actually do us some damage if they really want to, though I suspect making it harder for Australian farmers to export in to the EU isn't exactly a hard sell. That said, the US is already unhappy with China for messing with our economy. We'll see what comes of all that. Probably not very much. In any case, all the screaming right wingers have once again proved to be full of hot air.
The international economic relations of France are in the hands of the EU. Keep that in mind. It took some time for Donald to realize that, you can't make a financial deal with a single EU country hoping you can play one EU country against an other. They are 1 economic block that is too big to ignore by anybody.
You mean how Scomo called Macron on the morning that Australia announce the US/UK deal and unsurprisingly "couldn't get through". If so, I agree. He should have made sure that the French knew beforehand. The French finding out via press release was pretty shabby.
If you are talking about trade treaties then yes, I know all of that. I also know that Australia is currently negotiating a trade agreement wiht the EU & that France has a powerful voice inside the EU, especially if Germany is on side.
To me that is about the extent of the stuff up. He was so desperate for the big announcement and the chance to actually look like a Prime Minister for a change that he didn't give France its due respect. That said, I have no issue with breaking the contract to get better boats. Only 2 years after we signed the deal estimated costs had already balloooned and time frames were lengthening. We will get access to better tech in a similar time frame. I can live with that.
You lot just jelly into the extreem that Biden pulled of a 66 billion deal. All you whine about that it might have taken phonesex to correct a small rift between France and the US. lol Did Donald make such a deal? I think not.
I agree. Poor handling, but the strategic decision was correct. It'll be interesting whether we acquire the (current) astute or virginia-class, or whether we tether to their planned replacements/upgrades.
The Astute is better than the current Virginia design, though I think the Block VI closes the gap a bit. There is some talk that the new Columbia class may be adapted to be an attack boat, but I don't expect us to get those even if they do come to pass. I prefer the Virginia because so many more have been built than Astutes, meaning the design has had the bugs ironed out and there is a lot more institutional knowledge avaiable to us. That said, I believe the UK has finished building its subs, so they may have excess manufacturing capacity that the US does not. I hope we aren't dumb enough to go for some hybrid again.
Interesting take - that the Astute is better (which I agree with) - yet the Virginia will be a smoother process to build and run. Why not the block V Virginia?
Oh, and I don't trust the federal government one bit. Hopefully the decision aligns performance with politics and sleazy, semi-corrupt stuff, because they will base their decision on the latter qualities - always.
If France did not want Australia pulling out they would have put in huge penalty clauses in the contract if Australia pulled out but they did not. The decision was Australia's to make. It i s always a risk when you engage in a military deal with a country it will pull out and that is why you put in severe penalty clauses. France chose not to. That all said the real crux of the matter is the US and Britain want to exchange specific info with Australia via submarine that French submarines could not do.The subs being nuke or diesel is a deflection issue. It is the communications systems. France is not privy to intelligence exchanges as Australia is with the US and Britain.. Australia is a member of the 5 eyes an intelligence gathering organization between New Zealand, Australia, the US and Canada. France is not. So given the escalation and tension in the South China seas no one should be surprised Britain and the US wanted to upgrade intelligence sharing via submarines which on a French built sub would have been more problematic. As you would have to buy the sub with French specifications, then refit it only once in Australia. That would have been too time consuming and a ridiculous expense. I suspect all of you who think France is an innocent hard done by country do not understand they compete with Britain and the US and Australia and choose to remain independent of intelligence gathering and joint military operations. In reality they do their own thing and do not give a damn about anyone else in foreign policy. They are very arrogant. Yes they do share mutual concerns about Muslim extremist groups in Africa and in particular former French colonies but even then they do not have the intelligence exchange system Australia, Britain and the US do and they do not take commands from any other military officers in joint exchanges. They hate that. Britain, Australia and the US have interchange where officers of each nation actually joins the military of the other so that on certain exercises the command structure can interchange between officers of each nation. France will not do that. They have to remain in charge at all times in any military operations. That is a difference that impacts on the kinds of military alliances you can have. Furthermore Australia has a very strong military relationship with the US from WW2, Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan. It does not have the same history with France. Its connection to British military is also quite evident. Australia has always been a loyal member of the commonwealth and we in Canada know its history in WW1, 2 and then later Korea and our country has always had strong genuine relations with them because of that. Australia steps up during military threats. The Trump cult followers on this board are a joke. Had Trump did this they would all be screaming how tough Trump was and too bad. For Trump cultees to pretend Biden upset an ally after Trump insulted Nato and France for 4.5 years while he was in office is a joke.Trump insulted Australia many times not to mention Britain and Canada as well although in the case of Canada our Prime Minister is an idiot. If my idiot Prime Minister in Canada had any intelligence which he does not, he would have stepped in and offered to buy the diesel subs from France. We have no navy and are in desperate need of vessels. This could have obtained us diesel subs at probably a discounted price and helped save Macron's face. Unlike Australia Canada shares closer ties with France. We are in aunique position to help two good allies. Anyways I will always support Australia's decisions. I have nothing against France either but the reality is the US and Britain and their close ally Australia have to get closer given what is going on in the South China seas. Interesting how no one in the UK gave a damn about this story and the French never pulled their ambassador. France will find someone to buy those subs.
The penis in this case is a bribe. Or It’s Bidens mouth. Whichever. Biden isn’t solving this with a **** you useless Panzy response like he should. He’s going to bend over or go down on him in any way to keep him quiet, just like he does with China.
This case illustrate well what said De Gaulle once, describing a tragic fact : "A nation has no friends, only interests". I don't understand it personnaly as a cynical point of view, more just a fact. At least, a fact for our leaders.
