French minister: No mystery submarine deal came as ‘a shock’

STOCKHOLM (AP) — France’s defense minister says it is “not a mystery” that that the announcement of defense deal among the the United States, the United Kingdom and Australia came as a shock to French officials. Defense Minister Florence Parly spoke on Friday after a meeting in Stockholm of the European Intervention Initiative, a 13-country defense cooperation framework separate from NATO and to which the U.K. also belongs. The three-way strategic defense alliance announced by Australia, the U.K. and the U.S. killed a multi-billion-dollar French submarine contract. The French government has suggested it was caught off-guard and betrayed by the deal. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson and French President Emmanuel Macron discussed the matter by phone Friday.