“It is a symbolic loss more than a financial one” for Naval Group, said Saturday June 11 on franceinfo Jean-Dominique Merchet, journalist at Opinion, a specialist in military matters and author of the blog Secret Défense, while Australia compensates Naval Group for breach of contract relating to French submarines. The Australian government will pay 555 million euros to the French group which “not going to lose money”. On the other hand, the submarine crisis remains “a major failure because it was a strategic contract for France in this region of the world”, explained Jean-Dominique Merchet.
>> Submarine crisis with Australia: “A very bad deal for everyone”, judges General Dominique Trinquand
franceinfo: Is this a fair settlement?
Jean-Dominique Merchet: The part which went to France is much less important than what has been said. We never knew exactly. It was confidential. It was around 10 billion for France, not 50 billion. Some of it was going to American industry and Australian industry, of course. This is a trade agreement. When a company makes an agreement and this agreement is denounced, there are clauses and this is negotiated. And in the end, indeed, you must repay. We are exactly in this principle of a trade agreement. There is also, of course, a political dimension to the affair. But it’s really two different things.
Can a check really compensate for the damage?
Politically, no! For France, it is a major failure because it was a strategic contract for her in this region of the world. Finally, Naval Group is probably not going to come out so badly since it is covering its costs. He’s not going to lose any money. It will not sell its submarines to the Australians, but it is a symbolic loss rather than a financial one. Afterwards, politically, we can clearly see that there is an attempt at reconciliation between France and Australia. The Australian government, which had denounced the agreement, lost the elections last May. There is currently a conference in Singapore between all the regional powers, including France, which is present in the region. And so, we can clearly see that there is a new phase which is beginning, which is a phase of relaxation between France and Australia.
Have business opportunities changed for France?
Overall, no. Australia has made a final choice, which is to first ally with the United States and Great Britain in this region of the world against China. France wants to continue to weigh in what is called the Indo-Pacific zone. The Minister for the Armed Forces, Sébastien Lecornu, is even in Singapore, at this conference on the Indo-Pacific. He himself is a former overseas minister, so he is aware of these issues.
“Let’s not dream! France can only have a marginal position in this region of the world against countries like Japan, Australia, Korea, the United States.”
Jean-Dominique Merchet, journalist at “L’Opinion”at franceinfo
This does not mean that France will not be present, but it cannot be a major player, when we can clearly see that the major issues for Europeans today are rather on our side of the world with the Ukrainian crisis. .