The call paves the way for a possible brief meeting between Macron and Morrison in Rome or Glasgow but nothing has been confirmed.
Morrison downplayed the prospect of a meeting when asked earlier this week. “I don’t think that’s probably going to happen this time,” he told theToday program. “I think it will happen eventually,but we just got to give him a bit of space,give him a bit of space.
“I mean,we had to take the decision we took in the national interest,and maybe we’ll catch up at some time down the track. But for now,you know,sometimes it’s just best to give our friends a bit of space.”
Morrison sent Macron a handwritten letter earlier this month.
Macron will meet US President Joe Biden in Rome on Friday,local time,in an attempt to heal the transatlantic rift caused by the AUKUS announcement.
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The French also said Macron “encouraged the Australian Prime Minister to adopt ambitious measures commensurate with the climate challenge”,including a commitment to “cease production and consumption of coal at the national level and abroad”.
The French government has long held concerns about Australia’s climate change policies but refrained from public condemnation while the submarine contract was still in place.
Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull last month warned Australia’s decision to abandon the French security partnership would have ramifications for how other countries do business with Canberra.
“France believes it has been deceived and humiliated,and she was,” Turnbull told the National Press Club.
“This betrayal of trust will dog our relations with Europe for years. The Australian government has treated the French Republic with contempt. It won’t be forgotten. Every time we seek to persuade another nation to trust us,somebody will be saying,‘Remember what they did to Macron? If they can throw France under a bus,what would they do to us?’.”
The French ambassador to Australia,Jean-Pierre Thebault,returned to Canberra this month after being recalled in September.
The dispute has also forced negotiations for a free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union to be postponed from October until February 2022.
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