Why France is apoplectic with rage at Australia's submarine betrayal

Act of duplicity shatters Paris' Anglo-American partnership in Asia

Louis Raymond

September 21, 2021 05:00 JST

Pictured at the Elysee Palace in June, Australian Prime Minister Scott made no mention to French President Emmanuel Macron of Canberra's pursuit of a nuclear submarine deal with the U.K. and the U.S. © AP

Louis Raymond is a French journalist. He was previously attached to the French consulate-general in Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam.

It is the end of the summer holidays in Cherbourg, a small coastal city in Western France, where an Australian couple wave tenderly to their young daughter heading out for her first day at the bilingual primary school Gibert-Zola.