PM Jacinda Ardern said she would not expect to have been asked for New Zealand to join the new AUKUS security pact. Video / Pool
France has called off European Union trade talks with Australia in the latest escalation of the bitter row between Paris, Canberra, London and Washington over the Aukus security pact.
The deal included an agreement to build nuclear submarines and meant that Australia pulled out of a $92.8 billion deal to buy diesel-powered French vessels, which sparked a furious reaction from Emmanuel Macron.
His Europe minister, Clément Beaune, told the Politico Europe website that EU free trade negotiations with Australia would stop.
"Keeping one's word is the condition of trust between democracies and between allies. So it is unthinkable to move forward on trade negotiations as if nothing had happened with a country in which we no longer trust," Beaune said.
The European Commission helms trade negotiations on behalf of the EU member states and would make the decision on ditching any talks.
Any finalised trade deal requires the consent of all 27 member states. French opposition will becalm the already difficult talks over market access, especially for Australian agricultural exports such as beef. The trade deal, once agreed, is estimated to be worth far less than the submarine contract.
The European Commission said the next planned round of negotiations with Australia was in October but did not rule out cancelling them.
"We are analysing the impact of the Aukus announcement and what this impact would be on this schedule," the commission's chief spokesman said.
He said Ursula von der Leyen, the commission president, was in "close contact" with France and other EU countries to "gauge the consequences" of the announcement last Wednesday.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. Photo / Julien Warnand, Pool, via AP
EU foreign ministers will hold informal dinner talks in New York on the margins of the UN General Assembly at 10am NZ time on Tuesday, which will be the first time the bloc will be able to discuss the Aukus deal.
"You can expect that this issue will be raised and discussed by the ministers," the spokesman said.
"The willingness to compromise, on the European side, has now certainly decreased," Bernd Lange, the chair of the European Parliament's trade committee, told Politico.
The French Ambassador to Australia, Jean-Pierre Thebault, later told an Australian broadcaster that France was not lobbying EU allies to cancel the trade agreement, which has been under negotiation since 2018, and that "at this stage, negotiations do continue".
French Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault. Photo / Australian Broadcasting Corporation, via AP
However, Beaune is known to be close to Emmanuel Macron and served as his senior advisor on EU matters before he was given a ministerial post.
The trade talks, which were already expected to be a long-term project, could simply be resumed after next year's French presidential elections, which are thought to be a motivating factor in the furious response from the Elysee Palace.
It is the latest symbolic salvo in a diplomatic spat that has seen a UK-France defence summit cancelled and the French ambassadors to the US and Australia recalled. Paris has denied Swiss media reports that a long-planned meeting between the countries' presidents had been called off due to French anger about Bern's decision to purchase US, not French, fighter jets
Beaune has already accused the UK of "vassalage" or being subordinate to Washington and mocked London's plans for Global Britain.
