EU backs France in subs row

The row over Australia's decision to abandon a 56 billion euro ($65.7 billion) submarine supply contract with France as part of its new Asia-Pacific strategic alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States has deepened, with the European Union standing by its member state and putting a question mark over a prospective trade deal with Australia.

France reacted angrily to the news, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian last week calling the decision "a stab in the back".

"We had established a relationship of trust with Australia, this trust has been betrayed," he added, as France recalled its ambassadors from the US and Australia on Friday.

Now, the chair of the European Parliament's committee on international trade, Germany's Bernd Lange, has said free trade negotiations could be impacted too.

"Now the trust is missing," he told Australian broadcaster ABC, adding that it is a question of how serious and how reliable Australia is.

"Some (EU) members could ask for more safety nets and more safeguards in such an agreement, so I guess the dialogue and the negotiation will take more time."

Speaking at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Monday, Le Drian said the alliance between his country and the US was built on "transparency… explanation … talking to each other… all of that requires clarification today".

Josep Borrell, vice-president of the European Commission, was also at the UN meeting in New York, where he spoke to Australia's Foreign Minister Marise Payne about the dispute.

The current challenges to stability in the Indo-Pacific region required "more cooperation and coordination among like-minded partners" and "less fragmentation", he said.

He added that France had the backing of EU foreign ministers.

'Clear solidarity'

"The ministers expressed clear solidarity with France," he said. "This announcement ran counter to calls for greater cooperation with the EU in the Indo-Pacific."

Germany's European Affairs Minister Michael Roth said the dispute was a "wake-up call "for the bloc.

"We cannot exclusively rely on others but must cooperate, and we have to overcome our differences (within the EU) and speak with one voice," he was quoted by German news outlet Deutsche Welle as saying.

"Lost trust has to be rebuilt－and this will obviously not be easy. But we want to make a constructive contribution."

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson was due to meet US President Joe Biden at the White House on Tuesday, with the new pact, as well as issues around the COP26 climate change conference in Glasgow at the end of October, likely to be on the agenda.

Under the terms of the new pact agreed last week, Australia will get eight nuclear submarines, which means it has scrapped plans agreed in 2016 to buy 12 diesel-powered ones from France.

"We formed the view that the capability the attack-class submarines (they) were going to provide was not what Australia needed to protect our sovereign interests," said Australia's Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who insisted France had been aware of this change of heart for some time.