Australian PM attacks Macron’s credibility amid submarines row

Australian prime minister Scott Morrison has attacked the credibility of French president Emmanuel Macron as a newspaper quoted a text message that suggested France anticipated "bad news" about a now-scuttled submarine deal.

An Australian newspaper has cast doubt on President Joe Biden's explanation to Mr Macron last week that the US leader thought the French had been informed long before the September announcement that their A$90 billion (£49bn) submarine deal with Australia would be scrapped.

Mrmacronthisweekaccused Mr Morrison of lying to him at aparisdinnerinjuneaboutthe fate of a five-year-old contract with the majority French stateowned Naval Group to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.

Australia cancelled that deal whenitformedanalliancewith the US and the UK to acquire a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines built with US technology.

Mr Morrison told Australian reporters who had accompanied him to Glasgow for the UN climate conference that he made clear to Mr Macron at their dinner in June that conventional submarines would not meet Australia's evolving strategic needs.

Two days before Mr Morrison, Mr Biden and Prime Minister Boris Johnson announced thenuclearsubmarinedeal,mr Morrison attempted to phone Mr Macron with the news, but the French leader texted back saying he was not available to takeacall,theaustraliannewspaper reported.

Mr Macron asked: "Should I expectgoodorbadnewsforour joint submarines ambitions?" the paper reported.

"Wwhat I'll simply say is this: We were contacted when we were trying to set up the... call and he made it pretty clear that he was concerned that this wouldbeaphonecallthatcould resultinthedecisionofaustralia not to proceed with the contract," Mr Morrison said.

French officials said their government had been blindsided by the contract cancellation, which French foreign minister Jean-yvesledriandescribedas a "stab in the back".

Mr Macron said this week the nuclear submarine deal was "very bad news for the credibility of Australia and very bad news for the trust that great partners can have with Australia".

Mr Morrison said Mr Macron's accusation of lying, which the prime minister denies, was a slur against Australia. Most Australian observers see it as a personal insult against Mr Morrison.

"I don't wish to personalise this, there's no element of that from my perspective," Mr Morrison said.

"I must say that I think the statements that were made questioning Australia's integrity and the slurs that have been placed on Australia, not me – I've got broad shoulders, I can deal with that – but those slurs, I'm not going to cop sledging of Australia. I'm not going to cop that on behalf of Australians.”

Mrbidentoldmrmacronthat the handling of the Australian submarine alliance was "clumsy" and "not done with a lot of grace".

"I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the [French] deal would not go through. I honest to God did not know you had not," Mr Biden told Mr Macron.