Australian Prime Minister welcomes ‘restart’ in relations with France

Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese hailed a “fresh start” in relations with France when he met President Emmanuel Macron in Paris on Friday after a bitter dispute between the countries over a submarine deal last year.

“My presence here represents a new beginning for our countries’ relations,” said Albanese upon his arrival at the Elysée Palace.

“Australia’s relationship with France is important. Trust, respect and honesty are important. That’s how I’m going to approach my relationships,” he added.

Macron said the first talks between the two since Albanese’s election in May “show a willingness to rebuild a relationship of trust between our two countries, a relationship based on mutual respect.”

After acknowledging “difficult times,” Macron emphasized the two countries’ strategic partnership, their shared history of wars in Europe and their shared interest in stability in the Pacific region.

The statements, which followed a warm greeting between the two men and their wives in the courtyard of the Presidential Palace, mark a sea change in relations since the departure of former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Macron was furious last year after Morrison secretly negotiated the purchase of US-designed submarines and then abandoned a landmark deal with France signed in 2016 and then valued at A$50 billion .

France severed diplomatic ties with Australia and Macron repeatedly accused Morrison of lying to him at a dinner in Paris in June 2021.

Morrison’s actions were marked by “brutality and cynicism, and I would even be tempted to say blatant incompetence,” outgoing French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said at the handover to his successor Catherine Colonna on May 21.

Albanese announced earlier this month that French submarine manufacturer Naval Group had agreed to a “fair and equitable settlement” of €555 million ($584 million) for Australia to end the decades-old submarine contract to end.

Canberra has moved to buying US nuclear-powered submarines as part of a new security pact with Britain and the United States called AUKUS.

After announcing the deal, Macron recalled French envoys to both Australia and the United States over excitement in a serious and rare diplomatic crisis between leading Western powers.

France sees itself as a Pacific power thanks to its overseas territories, including New Caledonia and French Polynesia, and shares Australia’s concerns about China’s assertiveness in the region.

Albanese, a Labor Party leftist, and Macron also stressed their common views on the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with both countries supplying arms to Kyiv.

“My government strongly condemns Russia’s illegal and totally unjustified invasion of Ukraine,” Albanese said. “I commend President Macron’s leadership in support of Ukraine’s sovereignty and the struggle of the Ukrainian people.”

Macron praised Albanese’s commitment to the fight against climate change, which reverses the stance of his conservative predecessor Morrison.

The Australian government recently asked the United Nations to raise the country’s emissions reduction target for 2030.

“Australia’s new position – proactive, ambitious – offers us opportunities to move forward together,” Macron said.

Morrison’s predecessor as Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, said Friday’s meeting in Paris was a “great opportunity” to help Paris and Canberra get through a “very bad period” in which the French government didn’t even “pick up the phone.” ” have.

Albanese “is not Scott Morrison, so that’s a big advantage,” he told French journalists at an event organized by the Institut Montaigne in Paris.

“It’s important that this reset happens,” Albanese told national broadcaster ABC in a June 24 interview.