Former Australian PM admits hiding submarine plan from Macron

Former Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has acknowledged that he did not tell French President Emmanuel Macron that he planned to renege on a 56 billion-euro submarine contract and buy US-made submarines.

“Our strategy was that if we’re going to do this, we can’t let the French know, in case it hurts the deal with France,” Morrison said in a forthcoming book. seen by the news service Agence France-Press.

“So, we had to build Chinese walls, pardon the pun, around our discussions,” Morrison said, in an interview with Australian journalist Richard Kerbaj for a new chapter of the book “The Secret History of the Five Eyes.” about intelligence. alliance made up of Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the UK and the US. An updated version of the book will be published in July.

Morrison explained that he secretly worked with the US and the UK for two years to form an alternative alliance, called VICTIM – in which the three countries would share advanced defense technologies, allowing Canberra to buy US nuclear-powered submarines and ditch the French contract.

But Morrison maintained that he did not lie to Macron: “Not telling him is not the same as lying to him,” he said.

Under the original deal, Canberra had agreed to purchase a dozen conventional warfare submarines from French shipbuilder Naval Group. When first announced in 2016, France called the deal the “contract of the century.”

Australia’s decision to backtrack on the deal, announced in September 2021was perceived as a treason in Paris, with then-foreign minister Jean-Yves Le Drian saying it was akin to “a stab in the back”.

The measure greatly strained diplomatic relations between the two countries, with Macron then accusing Morrison of lying, saying he did not disclose that he was talking to the US and UK

The dispute was eventually resolved in June 2022with Australia agreeing to pay France more than half a billion euros to bury the hatchet.