France is disappointed. Australia, Britain and the US have signed a pact to build submarines that makes a shipment from France obsolete. The European Union is now drawing conclusions.

The European Union has postponed preparations for trade and technology talks with the United States in protest of the US-UK submarine deal with Australia. The agreed discussions on the Sept. 29 meeting in Pittsburgh were initially suspended, two EU diplomats in Brussels said on Tuesday. The head of the EU Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, had previously described the submarine deal as “unacceptable”. In reality, France, a member of the EU, was supposed to deliver Australia’s submarines.

The Minister of State for Europe, Michael Roth, also said that they understand France’s disappointment. “We all have to come to the same table, here we have to regain the trust that has been lost and that of course will not be easy,” he added. “It has been proven time and again that united conduct on the part of the EU is of the utmost importance.”

Germany should mediate

The Greens’ foreign policy spokesman, Omid Nouripour, called on the federal government to mediate the undersea dispute. “The order of the day must now be that Germany, as one of Europe’s not the smallest nations, now stands up and tries to call to reason and mediate,” he told Phoenix television station.

On Thursday, Australia, Britain and the US announced an Indo-Pacific Security Pact, shortly after the EU adopted the new Indo-Pacific guidelines. Among other things, the pact calls for Australia to build nuclear-powered submarines using technology from the two partners. This meant that the delivery of conventional submarines with a volume of 40 billion dollars agreed with the French shipping company Naval in 2016 was obsolete.

France called the Canberra and Washington ambassadors, upset about the cancellation. In addition, France had threatened to block a free trade agreement between the EU and Australia. The French shipyard initially won the contract for Australia against German competition.