China News Service, September 23. According to Agence France-Presse, on the 23rd local time, the French shipbuilding group stated that it will send bills to Australia in the next few weeks, requesting it to pay for the cancellation of submarine transactions; Australian Prime Minister Mo Lisson said that he would patiently repair the relations between Australia and France.
According to reports, the French Naval Group, which originally accepted Australia’s entrusted shipbuilding, said it would send "detailed and actuarial proposals" in the next few weeks, hoping that Australia would pay for the breach of contract.
A member of the group said: “Australia terminated the contract for convenience, which means that it is not our fault.”
The French Ministry of Defense also stated that the French Naval Ship Group has begun to negotiate financial solutions with Australia.
The French Ministry of Defense stated that Australia’s breach of contract is tantamount to “betrayal” and future negotiations will define the scale of “compensation and damage” caused by it.
Australia has recently announced that it has formed a US-UK-Australia trilateral security partnership called "AUKUS" with the US and UK, and cooperated in building nuclear-powered submarines, which led to the cancellation of the tens of billions of dollars of conventional power submarine contracts originally signed with France.
France expressed strong dissatisfaction with this and recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia.
On the 22nd, US President Biden and French President Macron conducted the first call since the "submarine order" turmoil. Biden agreed that the matter could have been handled better.
At present, France has planned to let the ambassador to the United States return to Washington next week, but there is no news on when the ambassador to Australia will return to Canberra.
Australian Prime Minister Morrison said on the 22nd that he had tried to arrange a dialogue with Macron, but has so far failed.
Morrison said, "But we will be patient, and we understand their disappointment."
He said that he will patiently rebuild relations with France.