No one does self-interested arms deals like the French

When it comes to demonstrations of indignation, no one does them quite like the French.

The revelation that the US, UK, and Australia had signed a new defence compact — popularly known as AUKUS — is said to have come to the attention of the Quai d’Orsay, France’s foreign ministry, “through media reports.” AUKUS came along with a perfidious Anglo-Saxon deal that provides Australia with previously secret nuclear submarine technology and allows the Aussies to jettison a poorly conceived $65 billion contract for 12 French-designed Barracuda diesel-electric submarines.