EU chief Charles Michel on Monday accused the United States of a lack of loyalty after Australia canceled a mega-contract with France to buy US nuclear submarines.

"The elementary principles for allies are transparency and trust, and it goes together. And what do we observe? We are observing a clear lack of transparency and loyalty," the European Council chief told reporters at the United Nations.

He said that the Europeans need "to clarify and to try to understand better what are the intentions behind this announcement."

Michel said that the move would reinforce European efforts to build their own defense capacity.

Such a move would be "not against our allies, but because if we are stronger and if we are more robust, then it means that our alliances are also stronger," he said.

Michel suggested disappointment with US President Joe Biden, who took office vowing to shore up alliances after his divisive predecessor Donald Trump.

With Trump, "at least it was really clear -- the tone, the substance, the language -- it was very clear that the EU was not in his opinion a useful partner, a useful ally," Michel said.

Australia said it understands France's disappointment but that its conventional submarines were insufficient to keep the country's submarine edge for decades to come, amid rising tensions with China.

France is livid by the move, with Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accusing Australia of "back-stabbing" and the United States of betrayal.

Belgian Foreign Minister Sophie Wilmes, also visiting the United Nations, described the contract decision as "a thunderbolt first for France but also for Europe and for the world on a geostrategic level."

Europe needs to be "more vocal" and "present on the international stage," she said.

She voiced hope for common ground in a meeting of EU foreign ministers later Monday on the sidelines of the United Nations, although diplomats said France was not pushing for any formal statement of support.

Nuclear subs deal a risk to NATO: UK former ambassador
London (AFP) Sept 20, 2021 - A divisive submarine deal between Australia and the United States, and claims of double-dealing against France, could undermine NATO, Britain's former ambassador to Paris said on Monday.

Peter Ricketts said Canberra's decision to abandon a contract with Paris for diesel-powered subs in favour of nuclear-powered ones from Washington drove a wedge between the allies and weakened the transatlantic alliance.

"I think this move certainly undermines French confidence in NATO and NATO allies, and therefore reinforces their feeling that they should be driving for European strategic autonomy," he told AFP.

"I think that can only be damaging to NATO, because NATO depends on trust. The repair work needs to begin urgently."

EU foreign ministers are due to discuss the new defence pact signed between the United States, Australia and Britain, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly Monday.

The deal -- dubbed AUSUK -- was announced last week, prompting France to claim it had been "stabbed in the back" by Australia and triggering an angry war of words.

- A 'turning point' in relations -

Ricketts, Britain's top diplomat in Paris between 2012 and 2015, likened the dispute to French opposition to US president George W. Bush's pursuit of war in Iraq.

France's president at the time, Jacques Chirac, warned against the conflict to oust Saddam Hussein, which Britain, led by prime minister Tony Blair, backed.

"It (the submarine deal) will be remembered in France, I'm sure, like the rift over Iraq in 2003, and things won't be quite the same," said Ricketts.

"I think it will tend to reinforce the feeling among Europeans that America is now a less reliable ally than it was," he added.

Ricketts, who was permanent representative to NATO in 2003-2006, said France would view the row as "a turning point" in relations with the United States and Britain.

"It's reinforced a feeling in Paris that I pick up that the Americans are increasingly turning their back on European security allies and focusing on their confrontation with China," he added.

"And that Britain, by this move, is following in the same direction."

Britain's Prime Minister Boris Johnson has sought to downplay any effects on its relations with France, insisting it remained one of its closest military allies.

But France's Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused London, which has recentred its foreign policy on the Indo-Pacific region post-Brexit, of "constant opportunism".

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With Australia-UK deal, Biden again shows China is paramount priority
Washington (AFP) Sept 16, 2021
Forging a new three-way alliance with Britain and Australia to the anger of the French, US President Joe Biden has again made brutally clear - his top international priority, overriding all else, will be facing China. Under the alliance christened with the acronym AUKUS, Australia will be the only country other than Britain to have access to US technology to build nuclear-powered submarines - which could deploy in contested waters where Beijing is assertively exerting its claims. The announcem ... read more