French Trade Minister rejects invitation to meet with Australian counterpart over submarines deal
Trade Minister Dan Tehan
Australian Trade Minister Dan Tehan has pleaded with his French counterpart to “work through” tensions between the nations, after France’s Trade Minister turned down an offer to meet in Paris next month.
Key points:
- The French remain angry at Australia for bailing on a $90 billion submarine contract
- Dan Tehan says there is an open invitation for his French counterpart to meet with him
- An official from the French minister’s office says the offer has already been rejected
France is still seething with anger after Australia bailed on a $90-billion submarine contract, in favour of a deal with the US and UK to help Australia switch to nuclear-powered boats.
Australia’s Trade Minister Dan Tehan will be in Paris next month for an Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development meeting, and has extended an invitation to meet his counterpart, Franck Riester.
Australia’s place in the world has completely changed
“My hope is we will be able to sit down and discuss this issue,” he said.
“There’s an open invitation for me to sit down with my French counterpart and be able to explain the decision — a decision that was taken in our national interest which was about protecting our sovereignty, our security — and I would be able to sit down and work through that with my counterpart.”
But an official from Mr Riester’s office said that offer had already been rejected.
“We won’t follow up the Australian minister’s request for a meeting. We can’t go on as if it was business as usual,” the French official said.
When asked about the rejection, an optimistic Mr Tehan remained hopeful the pair could sit down and discuss the issue.
“When I saw that report, what I did was I spoke to our ambassador in Paris and just said, ‘Please, just extend that invitation — it’s an open invitation — I’d be more than willing to sit down and talk to our counterpart and work through this issue,'” he said.
Franck Riester turned down the request to meet with his Australian counterpart.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison has also tried without success to speak to President Emmanuel Macron in the wake of the deal.
Paris recalled its ambassadors in Australia and the United States following the submarine announcement.
While it has since said it would send its US ambassador back, after the French and US presidents moved to mend ties in a phone call, it remains furious with Canberra.
Wong says PM’s trip ‘overshadowed’ by diplomatic rift
Shadow Foreign Minister Penny Wong said it was another example of how the federal government had mishandled the deal.
“It is concerning and it demonstrates yet again … the way in which Mr Morrison handled this was to focus on the announcement, not on doing what the country needed him to do, which is to manage that announcement with other partners,” she said.
Mr Morrison is in the United States for a series of high-level diplomatic talks, including the inaugural face-to-face meeting of Quad leaders.
But Senator Wong said the entire trip had been overshadowed by the rift between France and Australia.
“It’s unsurprising Mr Morrison has spent most of this week in damage control over the reaction from the French, who are understandably pretty furious about the way they’ve been treated,” she said.
“Clearly he hasn’t done enough when it comes to dealing with an Indo-Pacific partner, and that is France.”
