French President Emmanuel Macron held a telephone conversation with Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison on Thursday, the first since the crisis that erupted in mid-September, when he announced a new partnership between the United States, Britain and Australia that torpedoed a French submarine deal with Canberra.
The Elysee said in a statement that the French president made it clear that "it is now up to the Australian government to propose practical steps that embody the desire of the highest Australian authorities to redefine the foundations of our bilateral relationship and to continue joint action in the Indo-Pacific region."
According to the statement, Macron said that "Australia's unilateral decision to reduce the Franco-Australian strategic partnership" by ending the ocean-class submarine program in favor of another project, has "broken the relationship of trust between our two countries".
He added that France would pay "great attention to the situation of French companies and their subcontractors - including Australians - who were affected by this decision."
This call came on the eve of the meeting scheduled for Friday between Macron and US President Joe Biden in Rome, before the start of the Group of 20 summit, which will be followed by the United Nations Conference on Climate Change “COP26” (COP26) in Glasgow, in the presence of the Australian Prime Minister.
Relations between France on one side and the United States and Australia on the other entered an open crisis, after the latter canceled the purchase of French submarines and replaced them with US-British nuclear-powered ones.
Paris described the cancellation of the deal as "a treachery and a stab in the back."
Since then Macron has not had any direct contact with Morrison, while he spoke with US President Joe Biden and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who were also criticized by Paris after the announcement of the Aukus alliance between the three countries.