France calls off defense meeting with UK

The armed forces minister of France, Florence Parly, has pulled out of a planned London meeting with her British counterpart as Paris continues its protests over the loss of a submarine contract with Australia that has been replaced by a new deal with the United Kingdom and the United States.

Defense chiefs from both countries had been due to attend a two-day Franco-British Council meeting this week, which The Guardian first reported as having been postponed on Sunday. Parly then canceled her meeting with UK Defense Secretary Ben Wallace, according to the Reuters news agency.

The AUKUS trilateral security pact, announced last Wednesday by Australia, the UK and US, drew a furious response from France, which claims it was not consulted about the deal.

Australia maintains that it had made its concerns about the submarine contract clear for months.

President Emmanuel Macron has withdrawn France's ambassadors from Washington and Canberra, and Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the new submarine pact as "unacceptable behavior between allies and partners" and a "stab in the back".

On Sunday, Clement Beaune, France's Europe minister, dismissed the British role in the AUKUS security deal. "Our British friends explained to us that they were leaving the (European Union) to create Global Britain. As you can see, it is a return to the American fold and accepting a form of vassal status," he told Public Sénat, a state television station.

Alok Sharma, the president of COP26 at the Cabinet Office, told Times Radio: "I don't see us having vassal status to anyone. What we have here is a deal amongst three close allies. This is about security in the IndoPacific. When it comes to France we will continue to have very close relations with them on security matters through NATO."

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson was quoted by the BBC on Monday as saying France should not "worry" about the alliance, insisting that "our love of France is ineradicable."

He said: "AUKUS is not in any way meant to be zero-sum, it's not meant to be exclusionary. It's not something that anybody needs to worry about and particularly not our French friends." He added: "We are very, very proud of our relationship with France and it is of huge importance to this country. It is a very friendly relationship — an entente cordial — that goes back a century or more and is absolutely vital for us."

Macron and US President Joe Biden will discuss the dispute by telephone, a French government spokesman said.

"President Biden asked to speak to the President of the Republic and there will be a telephone discussion in the next few days between President Macron and President Biden," spokesman Gabriel Attal told news channel BFM TV.

France would be seeking "clarification" over the cancellation of a submarine order, Attal said.