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Agence France-Presse

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday that an offer to cooperate with Australia on submarines still stood, after a bitter row over a cancelled contract last year threatened to torpedo relations.
Macron was left furious when Australia’s previous prime minister Scott Morrison abruptly tore up a contract for France to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines and announced a deal to buy US or British nuclear-powered subs.
The row derailed relations and threatened to sink an EU-Australia trade agreement, but the two sides have made up since Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took power in Canberra.
The delivery of the new nuclear submarines could take years, potentially leaving Australia short of capacity at a time when China is increasing its assertiveness in the region.
Indonesia calls for tighter IAEA oversight on nuclear-powered submarines
Speaking in Bangkok a day after meeting Albanese on the sidelines of a G20 summit in Indonesia, Macron said the French offer “remains on the table”.
He said France would not supply nuclear submarines to foreign countries, so the offer related only to conventional vessels. He added it would guarantee Canberra’s “freedom and sovereignty”, noting that construction would be in Australia.
“We will now see how they adapt to the difficulties [they face],” Macron said.
“There is a fundamental choice, which is to know whether they produce submarines in their own country or rely on another – whether they go for nuclear or not.”
Albanese hailed a new start in ties during a visit to Paris in July, stressing he would act with “trust, respect and honesty” in his dealings with Macron.
That meeting came after Australia agreed a massive compensation deal with French submarine builder Naval Group to end the contract.


The settlement of 555 million euros (US$584 million) drew a line under the spat and was hailed by Albanese as “fair and equitable”. The original contract was worth an estimated 33 billion euros at the time.
The submarine row came as part of a new security pact between Australia, Britain and the United States dubbed Aukus aimed at countering a rising China.
France considers itself to be a Pacific power, thanks to its overseas territories including New Caledonia and French Polynesia.
But while it shares Australia’s concerns about China’s assertiveness, it has been keen to craft its own strategy for the region.
French partnership with India, UAE could lead to billion-dollar defence deals
Macron is attending an Apec summit in Bangkok and on Friday he will give a speech as he seeks to relaunch his Indo-Pacific policy after the Aukus humiliation.
“In this highly contested region, which is the theatre of a confrontation between the two major world powers, our strategy is to defend freedom and sovereignty,” Macron said on Thursday.
The Apec meeting comes hard on the heels of a G20 summit in Bali where Chinese President Xi Jinping and his US counterpart Joe Biden held landmark talks aimed at easing tensions between the world’s two biggest economies.


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Australia

Macron says France still open to reviving scrapped submarine deal with Australia

French President Emmanuel Macron (second left) and then-Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull (third left) stand on the deck of a submarine in Sydney. File photo: AFP

French President Emmanuel Macron signs a guest  book at Government House in Bangkok on Thursday. Photo: AFP

France eyes billion-dollar warplane deals in new strategic partnership with India, UAE

A French Rafale jet fighter takes off from France’s aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle. Photo: AP

French President Emmanuel Macron exits the cockpit of a Rafale jet fighter helped by Dassault Aviation CEO Eric Trappier (right) while visiting the Paris Air Show in Le Bourget in 2017. Macron had made concessions on the stalled sale of Rafales to the UAE, leading to the surprise signing of a €17 billion contract for 80 of the warplanes last December. Photo: EPA

A French Rafale fighter aircraft takes off with bombs from the French aircraft carrier Charles-de-Gaulle, on November 23, 2015 at the eastern Mediterranean Sea, as part of operation Chammal in Syria and Iraq against Islamic State group. Photo: AFP

Indonesia calls for tighter IAEA oversight on nuclear-powered submarines, warns of safety risks

Guided-missile submarine USS Georgia, front, transits the Strait of Hormuz. Photo: US Navy/TNS 

The United Nations logo at the Review Conference of the Parties to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons in New York City. Photo: AFP

Two Australian Collins class submarines at the navy base in Perth, Australia. Jakarta’s lobbying efforts at the IAEA are unlikely to become a major issue for Indonesia-Australia ties, one analyst notes. Photo: EPA-EFE

The task of supervising the use of nuclear material aboard submarines could be challenging for the IAEA, analysts say. Photo: US Navy

A year after Aukus deal, Australia to boost skilled workforce to help build nuclear-powered submarines

Under the Aukus deal, the US and the UK agreed to work with Australia to help build and maintain a fleet of nuclear submarines. File photo: EPA-EFE

Australia says committed to Southeast Asia’s stability, allays fears over Aukus nuclear submarines

Australian Foreign Minister Penny Wong greets her Malaysian counterpart Saifuddin Abdullah in Putrajaya on Tuesday. Photo: EPA-EFE/Ministry of Foreign Affairs

News

Asia

Australasia

Speaking at the Apec summit in Bangkok, the president said Paris’ offer to cooperate with Canberra on submarines ‘remains on the table’
Ties between the two countries took a hit after Australia last year cancelled a French contract to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines


Speaking at the Apec summit in Bangkok, the president said the French offer to cooperate with Canberra on submarines ‘remains on the table’.


Macron says France still open to reviving scrapped submarine deal with Australia

Speaking at the Apec summit in Bangkok, the president said Paris’ offer to cooperate with Canberra on submarines ‘remains on the table’ Ties between the two countries took a hit after Australia last year cancelled a French contract to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines

Speaking at the Apec summit in Bangkok, the president said Paris’ offer to cooperate with Canberra on submarines ‘remains on the table’

Ties between the two countries took a hit after Australia last year cancelled a French contract to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines