EU postpones free trade talks with Australia by a month amid AUKUS fallout

Amid the AUKUS fallout, the European Union on Friday, 1 October postponed 12th round of negotiations on a free trade agreement with Australia. While the EU has not provided any official reasons for the delay, Australia's Minister for Trade Dan Tehan said that the union has postponed the trade deal for a month, as Canberra’s decision to cancel a $40 billion deal with France stirred a row, reported The Globe and Mail. 

Last month, Australia had cancelled a deal with France’s Naval Group to build a fleet of conventional submarines. Instead, Canberra signed a trilateral deal with the United States and United Kingdom, under which Australia would acquire US nuclear-powered underwater vessels. After the announcement of AUKUS, France had openly expressed anger and recalled its ambassadors to the US and Australia.

Now, the latest development between Brussels and Canberra comes after France called on fellow EU members to consider whether the negotiations with Australia regarding future trade agreements should be delayed. French European Affairs Minister Clement Beaune had said that he would raise the trade pact and the security implications of AUKUS at a meeting with his counterparts in Brussels. As per The Associated Press, he said that France would even ensure that the matter is discussed at EU summits as well as ministerial meetings lined up for next month. 

In solidarity with France, the European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen questioned whether the bloc could strike a trade deal with Australia. On Friday, the Australian Minister for Trade Dan Tehan declined to comment on the role the AUKUS pact had played in the delaying negotiations. However, he confirmed that the 12th round of talks scheduled for 12 October had been postponed by a month. 

EU-Aus trade talks ‘unthinkable’

The trade negotiations between the EU and Australia are on the verge of collapse over the lack of trust after Canberra decided to ditch a multibillion defence contract with France over AUKUS. Previously, Secretary of State for European Affairs of France, Clement Beaune told Politico that it is “unthinkable” to move on with the Australia-EU trade negotiations “as if nothing had happened.” He also laid emphasis on the need to keep “one’s word” as the condition of trust between democracies. 

Beaune’s remarks came after France recalled its ambassador from Australia and the United States. Australia chose to abandon a $66 billion submarine contract with France but acquired nuclear-powered submarines within a new trilateral defence and security pact with the UK and the US, which is called AUKUS. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian has also described Australia’s withdrawal from the contract as a “stab in the back".

(With inputs from ANI)