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CANBERRA: Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied that he lied to French President Emmanuel Macron whereas secretly negotiating a submarine cope with the US and Britain, an accusation that has escalated a rift over Australia’s shock cancelation of a French deal.
Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce urged France was overreacting, saying, “we didn’t deface the Eiffel Tower.”
Australia in September dropped the 5-year-old, 90 million Australian greenback ($66 million) contract with majority French state-owned Naval Group to construct 12 standard diesel-electric submarines. As an alternative, Australia fashioned an alliance with Britain and the U.S. to amass a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines constructed with U.S. know-how.
Macron informed Australian reporters late Sunday in Rome, the place each he and Morrison attended the Group of 20 nations summit, that the brand new alliance was “very dangerous information for the credibility of Australia and really dangerous information for the belief that nice companions can have with Australia.”
Answering a reporter’s query about whether or not he thinks Morrison lied to him, Macron replied, “I don’t suppose, I do know” he lied.
Morrison mentioned he didn’t deceive Macron, whereas senior Australian authorities ministers criticized the French chief for escalating the dispute by means of the non-public slight.
“We didn’t steal an island, we didn’t deface the Eiffel Tower, it was a contract,” Joyce mentioned within the Australian Outback city of Moree on Monday.
“Contracts have phrases and situations, and a type of phrases and situations and propositions is that you just may get out of the contract. We obtained out of that contract,” Joyce added.
Joyce’s workplace couldn’t say whether or not “steal an island” was a reference to the English Channel’s tiny Sark Island, which unemployed French nuclear physicist André Gardes tried to overthrow with an assault rifle in 1990.
The weird occasion impressed the 2013 film, “The Man Who Tried to Steal an Island.”
Cupboard Minister David Littleproud described Macron’s criticism of Morrison as “unreasonable.”
Morrison couldn’t reveal that the US had provided Australia nuclear-propulsion know-how when the 2 leaders dined collectively in June for nationwide safety causes, Littleproud mentioned.
“I used to be very clear that the standard submarines weren’t going to have the ability to meet our strategic pursuits,” Morrison mentioned.
Macron refused to take Morrison’s telephone calls after the submarine furor broke till hours earlier than the Australian chief was to fly to Rome final week. The pair didn’t maintain a bilateral assembly in Rome, however Morrison mentioned they’d “spoken a number of instances” and would seemingly achieve this extra within the coming days. Each leaders will attend the U.N. local weather summit in Glasgow, Scotland, this week.
U.S. President Joe Biden informed Macron final week that the U.S. had been “clumsy” in its dealing with of the Australian submarine alliance. Biden mentioned he thought Macron had been knowledgeable lengthy earlier than the deal was introduced.
Requested by a reporter if Australia might have “dealt with it higher,” Joyce replied, “With hindsight.” He then drew an analogy to the Melbourne Cup, Australia’s best-known horse race, which can be run on Tuesday.
“If solely I might put a wager on final yr’s one, geez, I’d make some cash,” Joyce mentioned.
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