> French foreign minister says France didn't recall the British ambassador over the AUKUS row because France is familiar with the UK's "permanent opportunism" and said Boris Johnson was the "fifth wheel on the carriage".
* https://twitter.com/kimwillsher1/status/1439294035357749257
:)
> "Perfidious Albion" is a pejorative phrase used within the context of international relations diplomacy to refer to acts of diplomatic sleights, duplicity, treachery and hence infidelity (with respect to perceived promises made to or alliances formed with other nation states) by monarchs or governments of the United Kingdom in their pursuit of self-interest.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perfidious_Albion
And as said in Ireland, "the Brits are at it again".
In all likelihood the Australians will pick US Virginia-class subs off the shelf, not made in Australia and not the (excellent) British Astute-class subs, because the US doesn't normally let junior partners get the spoils, only crumbs. For instance when the US organized the 1953 coup that overthrew the Mossadegh government in Iran at the British' request, the Anglo-Iranian oil company was replaced with a consortium of US and European oil companies, with the British getting less than the would have had if they had accepted Mossadegh's most maximalist plan).