French ambassador accuses Australia of ‘deceit’ over submarine deal

His scathing comments followed the leak of a text message from President Emmanuel Macron to Prime Minister Scott Morrison that appeared in a Sydney newspaper on Tuesday, in which the French leader asked, “Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarines ambitions?”

The leak — intended to show that Paris knew the submarine contract could be canceled — came after Macron accused Morrison of lying to him about Australia’s plans.

Thébault said the leaked message sent a worrying signal to all heads of state that their private discussions would be “weaponized” against them by Australia’s government.

“This is an unprecedented new low,” he said. “You don’t behave like this on personal exchanges of leaders who were allies.”

France’s fury over the submarine deal and Australia’s decision to enter the AUKUS alliance with Washington and London underscores the long road Australia faces to rebuild the relationship with an important European partner. But Thébault stressed the problem lay not with Australia’s people but with the Morrison government.

“France will always be a close and loyal friend of Australia and the Australians,” he said. “If there is a problem today, it is with certain aspects of the Canberra bubble and its ‘secret city’ practices.”

He described the Australian government’s response to French anger as “sad,” and drew a comparison with President Biden’s handling of the diplomatic tensions over AUKUS by stressing the United States and France had “found again the path to acting together.”

Thébault said the leaked message from Macron to Morrison, sent two days before the contract was canceled in September, demonstrated France was in the dark about Australia’s plans until the last moment.

“It completely demonstrates that nothing has ever been told to us,” he said.