France's defense minister Ben Wallace has canceled talks with her UK counterpart amid the row prompted by a new security deal between Britain, the US, and Australia.
Paris is angry after Australia signed the Aukus pact to build nuclear-powered submarines, pulling out of a major contract with France in the process. UK PM Boris Johnson said France had nothing to worry about from the deal. The Aukus agreement brokered last week, widely seen as an effort to counter China's influence in the contested South China Sea, ending a deal worth 37 billion dollars signed by Australia in 2016 for France to build 12 conventional submarines.