Macron’s latest torpedo over submarine deal has nuclear barb

Australia in a very serious confrontation with China since it backed out of pact, says French president

FRANCE has reignited diplomatic tensions with Australia after Emmanuel Macron warned that the country had entered a “nuclear confrontation” with China by choosing to acquire atomicpowered submarines.

A year after Australia pulled out of a deal with France to build 12 conventional submarines and announced Britain and America would instead be providing it with nuclear-powered vessels, the French president also predicted that the multibillion-dollar Aukus security pact “will not deliver”.

On Thursday, Mr Macron insisted that the deal for the French submarines was “still on the table”, telling reporters in Bangkok that Australia’s original deal with France was “not confrontational to China because they are not nuclearpowered submarines”.

“But the choice made by [former] prime minister [Scott] Morrison was the opposite, re-entering into nuclear confrontation, making himself completely dependent by deciding to equip themselves [with a] submarine fleet that the Australians are incapable of producing and maintaining in-house,” he said. Last year, Mr Macron accused Mr Morrison of lying to him by not informing him until the last minute that the contract was going to be cancelled – a move his foreign minister called a “stab in the back”. Mr Macron reiterated 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 Albanese government as it is sticking with Aukus.

However, after meeting Mr Macron on the sidelines of the G20 summit, Anthony Albanese, the Australian prime minister, yesterday poured water on the idea.

“President Macron is entitled to put forward his views, as he does in a very forthright way. He’s entitled to make whatever comments he wants as the leader of France,” he said while attending the Asia-pacific Economic Co-operation summit in Bangkok.

On the prospect of buying French submarines, Mr Albanese added: “I think President Macron answered that question when he noted Australia has not decided to change [its] strategy on the subject.”

The Australian leader – who met Kamala Harris, the US vice-president, yesterday – said the government was “proceeding with the Aukus arrangements”, adding that “there’s nothing ambiguous about it”.