Australian Prime Minister (PM) Scott Morrison has said he will not accept the “sledging of Australia” after French President Emmanuel Macron branded him a liar and questioned Australia’s credibility over the scrapped 2015 multi-billion submarine contract.
In a press conference on Monday, Morrison said, “I can deal with that. But those slurs, I’m not going to cop sledging at Australia. I’m not going to cop that on behalf of Australians.” He also reaffirmed that Macron was aware of the problems with their pre-existing submarine deal before Australia announced the AUKUS military partnership with the United States (US) and the United Kingdom (UK).
Morrison said that in June, he had clearly conveyed to Macron several problems with the submarine deal and that conventional diesel-powered submarines don’t meet Australia’s strategic interests in the Indo-Pacific. “We discussed that candidly. I did not discuss what other alternatives we were looking at,” he noted.
Furthermore, the Australian PM fleetingly mentioned the dinner with Macron at the Elysée Palace in June where the “key conversation” took place. He said, “After our dinner that night, the French defence system swung into full action and engaged in a full-court press with all of our officials and others, including the Defence Minister and others.” He added that this very response indicated Morrison’s discussion with Macron regarding several issues with the submarine deal.
Further previous communication between the two leaders was also leaked to the media, with Macron reportedly telling Morrison: “I don’t like losing.” Another text message reportedly sent by Macron to his Australian counterpart two days before the AUKUS announcement read: “Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarines ambition?” When questioned about the leaked messages, Morrison refused to comment.
Regarding Macron’s remarks, Morrison said the level of offence on the French side is still great, and that Canberra will wait for it to subside.
On the contrary, former Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull believes Morrison “should apologise because he did very elaborately and duplicitously deceive France.” He further criticised Morrison for damaging Australia’s relationships with France and Europe and the US’ relationship with France.
In September, Australia announced the trilateral AUKUS military partnership with the US and the UK to counter China’s growing influence in the Indo-Pacific. The deal allows Australia to build a fleet of nuclear-powered submarines with the technology shared by its partners. However, for this partnership, Australia abandoned its submarine contract with France. Subsequently, France accused Australia of blindsiding Europe and not revealing its true intentions regarding the submarine deal.