January 1, France angry over Biden exclusion: “It is really a stab in the back”

President Joe Biden excluded France from the three-country security pact, AUKUS, that will provide nuclear submarines to Australia. The French government is fuming over the decision.

“It is really a stab in the back. We built a relationship of trust with Australia, and this trust was betrayed and I’m angry today, with a lot of bitterness, about this breach,” said French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian.

“This brutal, unilateral, and unpredictable decision reminds me a lot of what Mr. Trump used to do,” Le Drian said. “I am angry and bitter. This isn’t done between allies.”

“The American choice to exclude a European ally and partner such as France from a structuring partnership with Australia, at a time when we are facing unprecedented challenges in the Indo-Pacific region, whether in terms of our values or in terms of respect for multilateralism based on the rule of law, shows a lack of coherence that France can only note and regret,” the French embassy in Washington, D.C., said in a statement.

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France fuming over Biden ‘backstab’ on US-UK-Aussie nuclear submarines pact