In the dispute over the failed submarine deal with France, Australia has rejected the accusation of lying.
The Australian government had expressed its concerns about the planned purchase to Paris "openly and honestly", Defense Minister Peter Dutton told Sky News Australia on Sunday.
The project was years behind schedule and the budget was exceeded.
"The government had these concerns, we have raised them, and we want to work very closely with the French and we will continue to do so in the future," he said.
The US, UK and Australia recently announced the creation of a new security alliance for the Indo-Pacific.
As a result, Australia broke a multi-billion dollar submarine deal with France.
Instead, Australia wants to buy US nuclear submarines.
France reacted very angrily to the announcement and called its ambassadors from Washington and Canberra back for consultations on Friday in an extraordinary diplomatic move between allies. French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian accused the USA and Australia of “lying” and “duplicity” as well as a serious breach of trust and “disregard” on Saturday. The future of NATO was burdened by the incident, he told the broadcaster France 2. The process had an impact on the definition of the new strategic concept of the defense alliance.
On Friday, Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison denied that Australia had left France in the dark about its real intentions in the submarine deal. At a dinner in Paris in June, he made it very clear to French President Emmanuel Macron that Australia had changed its stance on the planned arms deal. At the time he pointed out that his country was facing a "new strategic environment" and therefore had significant concerns about the possibilities of conventional submarines, Morrison told an Australian radio station.