PARIS (Reuters) – Australia’s decision to give up its contract with Naval Group for 12 submarines was made “without any notice, with unprecedented brutality,” the group CEO said in an interview with Figaro French, Pierre Éric Pommellet, who will submit a “detailed proposal” to be compensated.
France denounced last week a “blow in the back” after the decision of Australia to cancel this contract of tens of billions of dollars in favor of a strategic partnership with the United States and Great Britain .
Canberra argued this week that Paris should not have been surprised by its change of alliance, claiming to have expressed for years its concern about this contract due in particular to delays and rising costs.
“Naval Group has always honored its commitments on all plans, costs, deadlines, Australian supply chain…”, assures Pierre Éric Pommellet in an interview published Wednesday evening on the Figaro website. “At Naval Group, neither in France, nor in Australia, we had no warning sign or the slightest information that we were becoming a plan B for the benefit of a plan A associating the United States and the United Kingdom “.
On September 15, he explains, a few hours before Canberra informed Naval Group of its decision, it received “a letter officially informing us that the Australian government had accepted our offer as well as the technical choices that would have been made. made it possible to start a new phase of the program, known as the ‘basic design’ of submarines.
Asked about compensation for breach of contract, the CEO of Naval Group said that the estimates of amount circulating have “no basis”.
“Australia terminated the contract for ‘convenience’ (…) We are not at ‘fault'”, says Pierre Éric Pommellet. “This is a case which is provided for in the contract and which will give rise in particular to payment of our costs incurred and to come (…) Australia has asked us to provide it with a detailed and costed proposal” which will be submitted in a few weeks”.
French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden agreed Wednesday during a telephone interview to launch “in-depth consultations” to put in place “the conditions guaranteeing confidence” between Paris and Washington after the crisis caused by this affair.
(Written by Jean Terzian)
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