Iran Press/ Asia: Australia Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce on Monday suggested France was overreacting, saying, 'we didn't deface the Eiffel Tower, it was a contract ... contracts have terms and conditions.'
Earlier Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said he would not 'cop sledging on Australia' in an extraordinary broadside hours after Macron shared an awkward handshake at the G20 summit in Rome.
'We made the right calls for Australia. I don't wish to personalise this,' he proclaimed.
'I must say the statements that have been made questioning Australia's integrity, not me, I've got broad shoulders and I can take that, but those slurs, I'm not going to cop sledging of Australia.'
Macron this morning insinuated that the Australian PM had lied when Canberra decided to shred an AU$90 million deal with Paris for 12 diesel-electric submarines.
The French president claims that Morrison acted secretly with the US and the UK after Australia abandoned the deal just hours before the new Aukus security pact was announced in September.
London and Washington have said they will provide Canberra with nuclear submarine technology as part of the alliance.
Macron was asked by reporters when leaving the G20 event about the failed submarine deal.
'I have a lot of respect for Australia, a lot of respect and friendship for your people. I just say when we have respect, you have to be true and you have to behave in line and consistent with this value,' Macron said.
The French president was then asked if the Australian prime minister had lied. 'I don't think I know,' Macron replied before cutting off further questions.
In response, Morrison fronted cameras to say that he wanted to avoid a 'personal spat' but that he would not accept another leader 'questioning Australia's integrity.'
'I have to put Australia's interests before any interests that involved potentially offending others,' he said.
'The French submarine contract was a significant investment decision taken five years ago. Given Australia's strategic circumstance, time, and technology, the attack class submarine was the right decision.
'But there have been significant changes that have occurred in our strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific, which completely changed the game.'
His deputy, Joyce, later backed him while speaking to voters at an event in the New South Wales town of Moree.
'We didn't steal an island, we didn't deface the Eiffel Tower, it was a contract,' Joyce said.
'Contracts have terms and conditions, and one of those terms and conditions and propositions is that you might get out of the contract. We got out of that contract,' the deputy PM added.
Mr. Joyce's office could not say whether 'steal an island' was a reference to the English Channel's tiny Sark Island, which unemployed French nuclear physicist André Gardes attempted to overthrow with an assault rifle in 1990.
The bizarre event inspired the 2013 movie 'The Man Who Tried to Steal an Island.'
Diplomatic tensions between the two countries have escalated since Australia pulled out of a $90 billion deal with France to manufacture its next generation of submarines.
There are fears that Australia's ditching of the French submarine deal could derail a potential free trade agreement with the European Union, of which France is a key member.
During the 2019-20 financial year, Australia's two-way trade with the EU was worth $78.7 billion, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade data showed.
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