Australia to pay French submarine builder $835 million for scrapped contract
Baku, June 11, AZERTAC
Australia will pay French shipbuilder Naval Group AU$835 million ($589 million) in compensation for unilaterally breaking a contract for the construction of a dozen submarines, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese announced Saturday, according to La Prensa Latina.
During a press conference, Albanese said he hopes to travel to Paris soon to meet with French president Emmanuel Macron, with whom he had finalized the details of the agreement that could end diplomatic tension between the two countries.
The Australian prime minister, who thanked the state-owned Naval Group for agreeing to the deal, said that he sees a personal meeting with Macron as “absolutely vital to resetting that relationship, which is an important one for Australia’s national interests.”
“The tensions between Australia and France, I think, have been pretty obvious and they go from the top - I intend to have an honest relationship with France and one that is based upon integrity and mutual respect,” he said.
Australia announced in September last year, under the government of Scott Morrison, that it was scrapping the contract with the Naval Group, signed in 2016 and valued at AU$90 billion for the construction of 12 diesel-powered submarines.
The Oceanian country broke the agreement immediately after sealing a security alliance with the United Kingdom and the United States (AUKUS), which will provide it with nuclear submarines.
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