Boris Johnson says France needs to 'get a grip' amid anger over AUKUS pact

[reporter2]

Boris Johnson says France needs to 'get a grip' amid anger over AUKUS pact

"I just think it's time for some of our dearest friends around the world to prenez un grip [get a grip] about all this and donnez-moi un break [give me a break]," the prime minister says when asked about the continuing row over the AUKUS initiative.

22 September 2021

Boris Johnson has said France should get over its anger at a partnership between the UK, US and Australia that saw the latter pull out of a major contract with Paris for submarines.

"What I want to say about that is I just think it's time for some of our dearest friends around the world to prenez un grip [get a grip] about all this and donnez-moi un break [give me a break]," the prime minister said when asked about the continuing row over the AUKUS initiative.

"This is fundamentally a great step forward for global security. It's three very like-minded allies standing shoulder to shoulder and creating a new partnership for the sharing of technology.

"It's not exclusive, it's not trying to shoulder anybody out. It is not adversarial towards China, for instance.

"It is there to intensify links and friendship between three countries in a way that I think will be beneficial for things that we believe in."

The AUKUS deal saw the UK, Australia and the US form a trilateral security pact to develop and deploy nuclear-powered submarines, adding to the Western military presence in the Pacific region amid growing concern over China.

The initiative will focus initially on helping the Australian navy procure a multibillion-pound fleet of nuclear-powered submarines - a move that Beijing will likely see as aggressive.

Nuclear-powered submarines are superior to their diesel counterparts, as they can operate more quietly and stay underwater for longer.

But London, Canberra and Washington said they will also seek to collaborate in cyber, quantum technologies and artificial intelligence as well as other underwater capabilities - areas in which Western democracies are frantically racing their authoritarian rivals to dominate.

In a joint statement when AUKUS was announced, Mr Johnson, US President Joe Biden and Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said: "The endeavour we launch today will help sustain peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region.

"For more than 70 years, Australia, the United Kingdom, and the US, have worked together, along with other important allies and partners, to protect our shared values and promote security and prosperity. Today, with the formation of AUKUS, we recommit ourselves to this vision."

But responding to the news, China's embassy in Washington said the countries needed to "shake off their Cold War mentality and ideological prejudice".

France recalled its ambassadors to the United States and Australia in a backlash over the new security partnership, with foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian describing it as a "stab in the back".

[reporter2]

Boris Johnson tells Macron: Donnez-moi un break over new pact

By Marie Jackson

BBC News

22 September 2021

Boris Johnson has told the French president to "donnez-moi un break" and get over his anger about a new military pact between the UK, US and Australia.

Speaking to reporters in Washington, he said it was time for "some of our dearest friends" to "prenez un grip".

Paris is angry after Australia signed the Aukus pact to build nuclear-powered submarines, pulling out of a major contract with France in the process.

Mr Johnson insisted they were "not trying to shoulder anybody out".

The Aukus agreement brokered last week, widely seen as an effort to counter China's influence in the contested South China Sea, ended a deal worth $37bn (£27bn) signed by Australia in 2016 for France to build 12 conventional submarines.

In the following days, French foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian described the move as a "stab in the back".

France's defence minister then called off talks with her UK counterpart, Ben Wallace, who tried to reassure France saying that there had been no intent to "upset or drive a wedge between us and France".

And in a rare step among allies, French President Emmanuel Macron ordered the recall of the French ambassadors to Washington and Canberra.

On his visit to the US this week, Mr Johnson said: "This is fundamentally a great step forward for global security. It's three very like-minded allies standing shoulder to shoulder creating a new partnership for the sharing of technology.

"It's not exclusive. It's not trying to shoulder anybody out," he added.

Analysts have described the Aukus alliance as probably the most significant security arrangement between the three nations since World War Two.

The pact will focus on military capability, separating it from the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing alliance which also includes New Zealand and Canada.

While Australia's submarines is the big-ticket item, Aukus will also involve the sharing of cyber capabilities and other undersea technologies.

Mr Johnson is understood to have learned French while attending school in Brussels and, during his time as foreign secretary, he was known to venture into French during press conferences.