France Accuses Australia, US Of "Lying" In "Crisis" Over Submarine Row
NDTV
French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told said, "There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt".
France on Saturday accused Australia and the United States of lying in a crisis over a security pact that saw Canberra scrap a contract to buy French submarines in favour of American vessels.
"There has been lying, duplicity, a major breach of trust and contempt," French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told France 2 television. "This will not do."
A "serious crisis" was now in progress between the allies, he added.
Le Drian was speaking a day after Paris, on the orders of President Emmanuel Macron, recalled its ambassadors to Canberra and Washington, an unprecedented act that revealed the extent of the anger in France over the rupture of the contract.
