French Naval Group to Send Australia Invoice for Scrapped Deal

The well-known French defense contractor Naval Group revealed this week that it will bill the Australian government for canceling a multi-billion dollar deal to purchase submarines in favor of nuclear-powered ones from the United States and the UK.

Speaking exclusively to French Le Figaro Magazine, the CEO of the French firm Pierre Eric Pommellet indicated that "the fine and the outstanding bill would be sent to Australia by the next week."

Le Figaro also affirmed that "it is our legal right and no one could do a thing about it."

Naval Group seeks compensation in the amount of USD 1 billion in relation to the invoice of the designs of submarines, which has not been paid yet.

In the same context, some French parties and politicians are currently pushing for a wholesale withdraw from Nato’s integrated command, as France did under Charles De Gaulle‘s regime, according to international reports. This approach came out of the political impact of the secretive U.S.-British move to sell nuclear-powered submarines to Australia, a decision that the Australians used to nix the prior French deal.

Lately, French President Emmanuel Macron has sparked concern that France could reconsider its NATO membership after his long silence on the Aukus deal announcement, which saw a deal between France and Australia go down.