French President Emmanuel Macron has accused Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison of lying to him about the aborted French/Australian submarine deal.
Macron is in Rome attending the G20 Summit when he was asked by an Australian reporter if he thought Morrison had lied to him.
‘I don’t think, I know,’ was the French President’s curt reply.
‘I just say when we have respect… you have to behave… in line and consistently with this value,’ he said.
I ask French President Emmanuel Macron whether Scott Morrison lied to him: “I don’t think, I know.” pic.twitter.com/3tcg4xrl90
— Bevan Shields (@BevanShields) October 31, 2021
Morrison has refuted the claim he lied. He told a separate press conference that, ‘I was very clear that the conventional submarines were not going to be able to meet our strategic interests and we were going to have to make a decision in our national interest.’
Macron didn’t stop at the accusation of dishonesty. He openly mocked Canberra for scrapping a solid deal with a reliable timeline with France, for an 18-month review of a roadmap into how Australia could potentially obtain nuclear submarines sometime in the future. ‘Now, you have 18 months before a report,’ Macron said according to Australian media. ‘Good luck.’
