Of course they did.
Clutching their pearls is ridiculous.
Australia says France knew it had ‘deep and grave concerns’ about its submarines before U.S. deal
By Rachel Pannett
Today at 7:55 a.m. EDT
SYDNEY — Australia’s Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Sunday that it had “deep and grave” concerns about the diesel-powered submarines it planned to buy from France — and that Paris knew that well before Canberra abruptly canceled the deal in favor of sharing nuclear submarine technology with the United States and Britain.
Morrison was pushing back on criticism from France that Australia left the country in the lurch by secretly negotiating the new three-nation pact, called AUKUS, even as he acknowledged only telling France about the new deal on the day it was announced.
“I think they would have had every reason to know that we had deep and grave concerns that the capability being delivered by the Attack Class submarine was not going to meet our strategic interests,” Morrison told reporters Sunday.
“This is an issue that had been raised by me directly some months ago and we continued to talk those issues through, including by defense ministers and others.”
more:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/09/19/submarines-france-australia-concerns/
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