After submarine row, Macron tells Australian PM he wants to focus on future

Relations between the two Western allies reached a low last October when Australia canceled a multi-billion dollar French submarine program and opted for submarines to be built with US and British technology instead.

Receiving Albanese at the Elysee Palace in Paris, the pair were asked if Australia should apologize.

“He’s not responsible for what happened,” Macron replied. “We’ll speak about the future, not the past.”

The decision to scrap the lucrative contract had incensed Paris.

Macron reacted with fury, recalling the French ambassador to Australia, accusing the then-Australian prime minister, conservative Scott Morrison, of lying, while the French foreign minister said Canberra had “stabbed its ally in the back”.

But Morrison’s party lost elections in May and his Labor successor has pledged to rebuild ties with France.

In his statement at the French presidential palace, Albanese thanked Macron for the warm welcome and appeared to allude to the dispute: “Trust, respect, and honesty matter,” he said.

Paris, which has 1 million citizens living in territories spanning the Indian and Pacific Oceans and 8,000 troops stationed there, had made Australia a cornerstone of its Indo-Pacific strategy to counter the rise of China.

France has supplied warplanes to India and Indonesia in particular to build military ties with countries in the region.

On Friday (Jul 1), Macron said the two would discuss defense and geo-strategic issues but also “new projects” in terms of renewable energy, critical metals, space, and the poles, with the two countries both having territories in the Antarctic.