Speaking a year after Australia pulled out of a deal with France to build 12 conventional submarines – announcing that Britain and the US would supply it with nuclear-powered vessels instead – the French president also predicted that the multibillion-dollar Aukus security pact . will not deliver.” On Thursday, Mr Macron insisted a deal on French submarines was “still on the table”. He told reporters in Bangkok that Australia’s original agreement with France “was not in conflict with China because they are not nuclear submarines”. “But the choice Prime Minister Morrison made was the opposite, he re-entered a nuclear standoff, making himself fully dependent by deciding to arm [with a] submarine fleet that the Australians are incapable of producing and maintaining internally,” he said.
“Stab in the Back”
Last year, Macron famously accused Morrison of lying to him by not informing him until the last minute that the contract was to be canceled – a move the foreign secretary described as a “stab in the back”. Macron repeated those claims this week, saying: “I don’t think, I know.” While the comments were aimed at Mr Morrison, the latest criticism also applies to the Albanian government as it sticks to Aukus. But after meeting Mr Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, played down the idea on Friday. “President Macron is entitled to express his views, as he does in a very direct way,” Mr Albanese said. “He is entitled to make whatever comments he wants as the leader of France,” he said while attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (Apec) summit in Bangkok. On the prospect of buying French submarines, he said: “I think President Macron answered that question when he noted that Australia has not decided to change its strategy on the matter.” The Australian leader – who met Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, on Friday – said the government was “moving forward with the Aukus arrangements”, adding there was “nothing unclear about it”.
