The entourage of Emmanuel Macron was annoyed, this Tuesday, after the leak of an SMS sent by the President of the Republic to the Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, on the mega-contract of submarines and denounced “Very inelegant methods”, repeating not having been warned of the termination of the contract.
“Should I expect good news or bad news for our joint ambition on submarines?” “Emmanuel Macron asked Scott Morrison, by SMS, two days before the termination of the contract in mid-September, the Australian press reported on Tuesday.
“We knew the Australians had questions”
This leak wants to suggest that the French president would have been aware of a threat to the contract before the official announcement of its termination. The leak could be an Australian response to the statement of the Frenchman on Sunday, who said he “knew” that Scott Morrison had lied to him, hiding from him his intention to break this contract of 55 billion euros, under the pretext of a change in strategy in favor of nuclear-powered submarines.
“This SMS shows that on the contrary the president did not know that they would denounce the contract”, protested the entourage of Emmanuel Macron, arguing that “if there had been a clearer SMS in this sense, they reportedly reported ”. “We knew that the Australians had questions but only on technical and timing aspects, as in any large contract of this type”, continues the same source, explaining that the presidential text message related to these points before a progress review with the builder Naval Group scheduled for the next day.
No apologies from Australia
“At the end of August, at a ministerial meeting in Australia they were told that everything was fine. The day after the president’s text message, Naval Group still receives a letter telling them that all is well. And two days later, we receive Morrison’s letter denouncing the contract, three hours before the press conference unveiling the AUKUS agreement ”between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, said the president’s entourage.
Since then, during the G20 in Rome this weekend, “Joe Biden apologized and admitted a clumsiness. We are going to rebuild trust with the United States. But Scott Morrison made absolutely no apologies, ”continues the entourage of the French president. “We didn’t know they wanted to change their strategy by going nuclear, otherwise we would have made a proposal. Telling us that they wanted to change strategy was the least of things, ”concludes the same source. The breach of this contract concluded in 2016 had caused a crisis between France and the United States and Australia, going as far as the recall of French ambassadors for a few days.