Canberra, Oct. 7 (BNA) Prime Minister Scott Morrison welcomed France’s decision to return its ambassador to Australia and said Thursday that bilateral relations are greater than the canceled submarine contract.
Morrison has dismissed suggestions that Australia needs to rebuild its relationship with France after canceling a 90 billion Australian dollar ($66 billion) contract last month, a measure French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian called a “stab in the back,” according to the Associated Press. (AP) Reports.
“We already have cooperation. Look, the relationship between Australia and France is bigger than a decade,” Morrison said.
“France’s presence, importance and influence in the Indo-Pacific is not about a decade. It’s about the fact that they are actually here, in the Indo-Pacific, that they have a long-standing commitment and work with Australia across a whole range of different issues.”
France recalled its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra after Australia dropped its contract with majority-owned French state-owned Naval Group to build 12 conventional diesel-electric submarines.
Under a coalition including Britain, Australia would instead have a fleet of eight nuclear-powered submarines built using American technology.
France quickly returned its ambassador to the United States, a partner in NATO.
Le Drian told a parliamentary committee that Ambassador Jean-Pierre Thibault will return to Canberra to help “redefine the terms” of the bilateral relationship and defend French interests in terminating the contract.
It is not yet clear how much it will cost to terminate the contract signed in 2016 Australia. Morrison said last month it had already spent A$2.4 billion ($1.8 billion) on the project.
He did not elaborate on the costs when asked on Thursday.
“We have a very good understanding of how to proceed with this. We will work within the contract as defined,” Morrison said.
France and its European Union partners reacted hostilely to Australia over its sudden decision to abandon the French deal.
Morrison said French President Emmanuel Macron would not take his calls.
“I look forward to our first meeting again, our first phone call again,” Morrison said. “I admit it was a difficult period, of course it is. We could not have made this decision without him… which caused deep disappointment and hurt France.”
Upon leaving Australia, an angry Thibault described the canceled contract as “an incredible, clumsy, inappropriate, un-Australian situation”.
“It was a huge mistake, and a very poor handling of the partnership,” Thibault said.
This week, Commerce Secretary Dan Tehan was ignored by French officials while in Paris.
Negotiations on a free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union that were due to take place this month have been postponed until November. Bernd Lange, a German lawmaker and chair of the European Parliament’s International Trade Committee, said questions had been raised about whether Australia could be trusted.
Agriculture Secretary David Littleproud saw the ambassador’s return as a positive sign.
“We understand their disappointment, but at some point we’ll have to move on, and we think a free trade agreement with the EU will be a good turnaround,” Little Proud said.
RAE