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France has been accused of stealing five million coronavirus vaccine doses destined for the UK.President Emmanuel Macron allegedly worked with EU chiefs to divert the large batch of Oxford/AstraZeneca jabs to his country earlier this year.The vaccines were expected to arrive in the UK but were instead redirected from Holland at the eleventh hour, according to The Sun.The newspaper quoted senior government sources as saying the “outrageous” move could have cost lives if not for the UK’s successful rollout of the Pfizer jab.AstraZeneca boss Ruud Dobber had announced publicly on 22 March that a vaccine batch was expected to arrive in Britain from its Halix site in Holland.But it reportedly never arrived, having instead been diverted to the EU’s scheme.The Sun said it was also claimed France made a veiled threat to prime minister Boris Johnson that it would cut off supplies of Pfizer, which would have jeopardised Britain’s vaccine rollout.The alleged incident is said to have sparked a major row between Mr Johnson and his French counterpart.It came at a time when Mr Macron was criticising the AstraZeneca vaccine, claiming it was “quasi-ineffective” and telling reporters the jab “doesn’t work the way we were expecting to”.He also appeared to criticise the UK’s vaccine rollout strategy, which at the time had resulted in more people being given a first dose than any other European country.The European Union was simultaneously threatening to impose export controls on Covid-19 vaccines after a major row with AstraZeneca, which was accused of cutting initial deliveries to the bloc by up to 60 per cent.A government source told The Sun: “The French stole our vaccines at the same time as they were slagging them off in public and suggesting they weren’t safe to use.“It was an outrageous thing to do and not the action of an ally, which was made very clear to them.” More

France has hit out at Australia’s decision to abandon a £43bn deal for French submarines in favour of a new security pact.The French government reacted angrily to news Australia, the UK and the US have entered an alliance that will involve building a nuclear-powered submarine fleet and wide-ranging projects on cyber warfare, artificial intelligence and quantum computing.Jean-Yves Le Drian, France’s foreign affairs minister, claimed the move was a “stab in the back” from Australia, telling Franceinfo: “We had established a trusting relationship with Australia, and this trust was betrayed.”The EU’s high representative, Josep Borrell said the bloc had not been consulted on the security pact, even as Brussels unveiled its own Indo-Pacific strategy.He said the decision by the Australian government to abandon the submarine deal with France meant that it was important for the EU to build its own approach to the region.“We must survive on our own, as others do,” Borrell said as he presented the strategy, talking of the importance of “strategic autonomy” “I understand the extent to which the French government must be disappointed.” However, British prime minister Boris Johnson insisted the UK’s relationship with France was “rock solid” when asked in parliament on Thursday.The so-called Aukus deal has also angered China, which accused the trio of “severely damaging regional peace and stability, intensifying an arms race, and damaging international nuclear non-proliferation efforts”.Chinese foreign ministry spokesman Zhao Lijian said countries should not build partnerships that target third countries and that China would “closely watch the situation’s development”.The move has been widely interpreted as an attempt to check China’s growing military assertiveness in the Indo-Pacific.However, the prime minister insisted Britain’s new defence pact was not intended as an “adversarial” move against China.He told the House of Commons: “It merely reflects the close relationship that we have with the United States and with Australia, the shared values that we have and the sheer level of trust between us that enables us to go to this extraordinary extent of sharing nuclear technology in the way that we are proposing to do.“It is true that that this is a huge increase in the levels of trust between the UK, the US and Australia.“It is a fantastic defence technology partnership that we are building – but it is not actually revolutionary.”Downing Street declined to comment on the collapsed Australian contract for conventional subs, saying this was a matter between Paris and Canberra.The prime minister’s official spokesperson added: “We continue to have a very close relationship with France, we have long standing security and defence relationships with France.“We have members of the armed forces working side by side right now and that will continue to be the case.”The spokesperson said defence secretary Ben Wallace had been in contact with his French counterpart, but there were no plans for a phone call between Boris Johnson and French president Emmanuel Macron.He confirmed the Aukus deal was discussed by Mr Johnson with US president Joe Biden and Australian prime minister Scott Morrison in a three-way meeting at the G7 summit in Cornwall in June, but played down suggestions this was the decisive moment in the agreement, which he said had been “an undertaking of several months”.Mr Johnson’s spokesperson suggested the UK’s ability to seal the deal could be regarded as a benefit from Brexit.“We are able to move in this in this way now that we’re not part of the European Union, and that is to the benefit of the British people,” he said.The UK’s commitment to Nato remained unchanged by the Aukus deal, he said.And he rejected suggestions it might undermine the “Five Eyes” intelligence relationship by creating an “inner circle” of three members while excluding Canada and New Zealand.The EU’s strategy will focus on trade, greater digital cooperation with Japan, South Korea and Singapore, support for climate change initiatives and a greater diplomatic presence to uphold the United Nations Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). It also plans to collaborate with Japan, India and Australia on transport links, in particular in the aviation and maritime industry, to link the bloc more closely to Asia.This comes after the EU on Wednesday launched a new plan to rival China’s Belt and Road infrastructure strategy, which it calls “Global Gateway”An 18-month process will now take place to consider technical and practical aspects of the AUKUS plan, and work out precise details of where work will be undertaken and jobs created, said the spokesperson.But he said there would be “extensive work” in the UK, creating “hundreds and hundreds” of jobs and generating tens of billions of investment over the lifetime of the project.Additional reporting by agencies More

The EU’s former Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier stunned ex-colleagues in Brussels by launching a blistering attack on the power of the European courts.Mr Barnier – who is running for the French presidency against Emmanuel Macron – said it was time for France to “regain sovereignty” lost to the European judiciary.The politician who negotiated the Brexit deal on behalf of Brussels appears to have adopted Eurosceptic rhetoric in his bid to win the presidency for the centre-right Republicans.“We must regain our legal sovereignty in order to no longer be subjected to the judgements of the European Court of Justice or the European Court of Human Rights,” the former EU Commissioner said on Thursday.Mr Barnier repeated his call for a referendum to impose a five-year moratorium on immigration to France from outside the EU. “We will propose a referendum in September 2022 on the question of immigration,” he told a rally in Nimes.Mr Barnier later issued a tweet attempting to clarify his rally remarks – saying he did not want France to break entirely free of the European courts but to create a “constitutional shield” to give the country more power over immigration issues.“Let us keep calm,” the presidential candidate also tweeted, claiming he wanted to “avoid any unnecessary controversy”.While some found Mr Barnier’s remarks “ironic” – given his stance defence of freedom of movement during the Brexit process – others said he was in danger of “destroying his legacy”.“One wonders how a sentence like that can come from such a committed European,” Clément Beaune, France’s junior minister for EU affairs, told Politico on his latest remarks.Julien Hoez from the European Liberal Forum said: “Michel Barnier is giving a masterclass on how to destroy your career and legacy in the desperate hope of looking electable to an electorate that just straight up dislikes you regardless.”The 70-year-old Republican candidate, who left the EU Commission in March, was one of the most prominent faces of the Brexit negotiations and regularly criticised Brexiteers in the Conservative Party.Responding to his attack on the European courts, Conservative MP Simon Clarke tweeted: “This is ironic in the extreme.”Polls in France have next year’s contest as a race between incumbent Mr Macron and far-right National Rally candidate Marine Le Pen.But Mr Barnier is hoping to make a strong showing in the first round of the contest, which is scheduled for April 2022. More

French media has highlighted rising tensions between France and the UK as it reported on Priti Patel’s new plan to push migrant boats back across the Channel. Both countries have become embroiled in a war of words over efforts to tackle migrants crossing the Channel by boat.France has “strongly rejected” the latest tactic reportedly sanctioned by Ms Patel, which would redirect migrant boats in the Channel back to France, according to Le Monde.The leading national newspaper called migrant crossings a “subject that sours relations between Paris and London” and said the French interior minister, Gerald Darmanin, had “upped the ante” with a tweet on the matter on Thursday. “France won’t accept any practice against maritime law, nor any financial blackmail,” Mr Darmanin wrote, adding that the friendship between France and UK “deserves better than stances that hurt co-operation between our departments”.Ms Patel told her French counterpart this week the British public “expect to see results” from French efforts to prevent ongoing migrant crossings. She is also to have told MPs she is prepared to withhold millions of pounds of cash promised to France to help step up patrols unless an improvement in the number of migrants intercepted by French authorities is seenLe Figaro, another major, right-leaning French newspaper, said the UK has accused France of not sufficiently preventing migrant crossings for years. “London wants to put the breaks on illegal immigration. Gerald Darmanin warns of a ‘practice against maritime law,’ the newspaper said in a report on the UK’s plans to push boats back across the Channel. “Tensions between France and the UK rise while Channel crossings increase,” France Info, a radio network, reported. In a round-up on European news, the outlet said the UK was “infuriated” by the number of migrants coming from France. Sud-Ouest, a regional newspaper, said things were “heating up” between London and Paris, following the French response to Ms Patel’s plans to push back boats. Meanwhile Le Parisien reported that the UK wanted to make French authorities “responsible” for migrants in the Channel, wherever they are found. According to reports, Ms Patel has ordered officials to rewrite maritime laws to allow Border Force to turn boats around, forcing them to be dealt with by French authorities.Several newspapers reported that members of Border Force are being given special training to handle migrant boats, but would only deploy the “pushback” tactics when deemed practical and safe to do so.Reports suggested such operations were likely to be restricted to sturdier, bigger migrant boats and only used in “very limited circumstances”.A Home Office spokesperson said: “We do not routinely comment on maritime operational activity.” More

The EU must talk to the Taliban since they have “won the war” in Afghanistan, the bloc’s foreign policy chief has said.Josep Borrell said Brussels had decided it was necessary to engage with the country’s new ruling power after an emergency meeting of EU foreign ministers to discuss the crisis.“We have to get in touch with authorities in Kabul. The Taliban have won the war and we have to talk to them,” said Mr Borrell at a news conference on Tuesday.But the foreign policy chief insisted that the EU will only cooperate with the Taliban if it respects women’s rights and prevents the use of Afghanistan’s territory by terrorist groups.“I haven’t said that we are going to recognise the Taliban,” he said. “I just said that we have to talk with them for everything – even to try to protect women and girls. Even for that, you have to get in touch with them.”Mr Borrell added: “We will put conditions for continual support, and we are going to use our leverage … to make the human rights to be respected. I know that when I’m saying that it looks a little bit wishful thinking. But we will use all our leverage.”The Taliban claimed animosities with foreign powers were over at a press conference in Kabul on Tuesday afternoon. The militant group’s spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told journalists: “We do not have any grudges against anybody. We have pardoned … all those who have fought against us.”The spokesman also claimed that women’s rights were “very important” and would be respected “within the framework of Sharia”.Mr Mujahid added: “Our sisters … have the same rights, will be able to benefit from their rights. The international community – if they have concerns – we would like to assure them that there is not going to be any discrimination against women, but of course within the frameworks that we have.”Although Germany has decide to temporarily halt development aid to Afghanistan, the EU will continue to provide assistance to the Afghan people to address the “worsening humanitarian situation”, Mr Borrell announced.UK foreign minister Dominic Raab suggested on Tuesday that aid spending to Afghanistan could be increased by 10 per cent, despite millions already being removed from the budget due to government cuts.Mr Borrell called on the Taliban to allow safe and unhindered access for humanitarian assistance to Afghan women, men and children in need, including internal refugees.“The EU calls on the Taliban to respect their obligations under international humanitarian law in all circumstances. The EU will also support Afghanistan’s neighbours in coping with negative spillovers, which are to be expected from an increasing flow of refugees and migrants,” he added.Mr Borrell also said that while the fight against al-Qaeda in Afghanistan succeeded, the process of nation-building failed, despite the enormous amount of resources directed to the country.The foreign policy chief said the immediate priority was to evacuate remaining EU staff, their interpreters and others working with the bloc’s officials in Kabul.“The first objective, the priority, is to ensure the evacuation in the best conditions of security of the European nationals still present in the country, and also of the Afghan citizens who worked with us for more than 20 years, if they want to leave the country,” he said.Meanwhile, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan praised the Taliban’s conduct, saying that the group – still designated a terrorist organisation in Russia – made Kabul “better” than it had been under the Afghan government of Ashraf Ghani. More