As Canberra tries to counter accusations of lying launched by Paris about the cancellation of a contract to build submarines in September, a message from French President Emmanuel Macron to Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison , was published Monday evening in the Australian press.

This SMS from the French head of state was sent to the Australian two days before the termination of the contract in mid-September.

Emmanuel Macron asks him, in English: "Should I expect good or bad news for our joint ambition on submarines?"

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 by the French president on Sunday, who said he "knew" that Scott Morrison had lied to him while concealing from him his intention to break this contract of 55 billion euros under the pretext of a change of 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 SMS covered these points before a progress review with the builder Naval Group scheduled the next day.

"Scott Morrison did not apologize"

“At the end of August, during a ministerial meeting in Australia, they were told that everything was fine. The day after the president's text message, Naval Group received another letter telling them that everything was fine. let us 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," the president's entourage said.

Since then, during the G20 in Rome this weekend, "Joe Biden apologized and admitted a clumsiness. We will rebuild confidence with the United States. But Scott Morrison has absolutely not apologized", continues the entourage of the French president.

"We did not know that they wanted to change strategy by opting for nuclear power, 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.

With AFP and Reuters

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