A new security pact between Australia, the UK and the US was announced without warning earlier this week. France, which, until the announcement, had a $66 billion contract to supply Australia with attack submarines, found itself denied the windfall by the agreement between the three countries.
The details of AUKUS, abbreviated from the member country names, were not known by French President Emmanuel Macron at the June G7 summit in Cornwall, South West England, where they were reportedly discussed, The Sunday Telegraph reported.
According to the report, despite a friendly and productive June summit between US President Joe Biden and Macron, which prompted several media outlets to describe their relationship as a "bromance," there existed on the sidelines a clandestine negotiation between British PM Johnson, Biden, and Australian PM Scott Morrison, in which the nuclear submarine accord was discussed in private.
