No Waltzing with France

 

American submarine

Baguette.

A strange thing is going on Down Under. The Australians have suddenly announced a new strategic partnership with the UK and USA to equip their navy with nuclear submarines. In response, France has called their ambassadors to the US and Australia home for consultations—a very serious diplomatic gesture. The new deal means the sudden abrogation of a huge contract with France for conventional submarines. In addition, it appears that a number of Australian companies involved in the French contract will be hit hard by this about-face.

So why did the Australians do this? You could call it a dumb move, as the French have; but apparently the Australian government did this in consultation with the main opposition party, Labour. Moreover, the governments of the US and UK must be assumed to be making the same mistake.

This surely speaks instead of a rapidly changing strategic situation. The risk of war with China is now serious enough that business considerations or current diplomatic relations with an ally must take a rear seat to national security. Australia apparently believes its survival may depend on having these superior nuclear submarines, and perhaps more importantly, on a closer alliance and military coordination with the US and UK. The fact that the Aussie government got the opposition on board reinforces this assumption. This looks like an all-hands-on-deck situation.

The actual manufacture of the subs will take years; the alliance with the UK and US may be more immediately important.