Leaked text message the latest salvo in sub deal spat

INA- SOURCES

 The diplomatic rift between Australia and France has deepened and taken another twist, with the release of a leaked, secret text message linked to the scrapped $90 billion submarine contract.
After he was branded a liar on camera by President Emmanuel Macron, Prime Minister Scott Morrison hit back, claiming the leaked text message, obtained by the Australian Financial Review, showed the French knew the submarine contract was at risk.
Two days before the AUKUS coalition was set to be announced, with Mr Morrison reportedly trying to set up a call with Mr Macron to inform him the submarine deal was off, Mr Macron messaged Australia's prime minister to ask: "Should I expect good or bad news for our joint submarines ambitions?"
It is this text message, according to unnamed sources familiar with events cited by the AFR, that showed the French leader was not blindsided by Canberra's decision to rip up the sub deal in favour of switching to US nuclear-powered military technology.
Speaking in Glasgow on Monday night ahead of COP26, Mr Morrison once again defended Australia's decision to abandon the contract with France and claimed Australians and the country had been "sledged" by Mr Macron.
Mr Morrison said he would not "personalise" the dispute after President Macron called him a liar on Sunday in the latest escalation of fallout from the scrapped submarine deal.
"I must say that I think the statements that were made questioning Australia's integrity and the slurs that have been placed on Australia, not me, I've got broad shoulders. I can deal with that," he said.
"But those slurs, I'm not going to cop sledging at Australia.
"I'm not going to cop that on behalf of Australians."
Mr Macron has taken umbrage at the way the announcement was handled and the process that led to Australia abandoning the $90 billion deal with France.
Asked by journalists on Monday whether he thought Mr Morrison lied to him about the deal, Mr Macron said: "I don't think, I know".
US President Joe Biden has admitted the handling of the landmark AUKUS agreement that will allow Australia to buy nuclear-powered submarines using US and UK technology was "clumsy".
"I was under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal was not going through, honest to God," Mr Biden said on Friday, sitting alongside Mr Macron in the French Embassy to the Holy See.
Mr Morrison on Monday reiterated a timeline of events that led to the French deal being scuppered and insisted in the days leading up to the announcement it was "very clear they were aware" the contract was in jeopardy.
"You've gotta have the strength to stand up to the offence that (abandoning the French deal) might cause," Mr Morrison said.
"I'm very confident about the decision I've made in Australia's interest."
Mr Morrison said it was clear from Mr Macron's comments today that "that level of offence is still very great". "We will wait for that to subside," Mr Morrison said.
Australia eyeing alternative subs for many months
Mr Morrison said he had ordered an investigation after the 2019 election to investigate potential alternatives to the French deal, which he described as "project that had few friends".
Mr Morrison said it was not until the G7 this year that he finally held trilateral talks with US President Joe Biden and UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, locking in the framework of AUKUS and setting Australia on the path to making the switch on its submarines deal.
Following the G7, Mr Morrison said he then had dinner with Mr Macron in Paris, where he made the French president aware Australia was considering alternatives to the French deal.
"I needed to share with him where Australia's thinking was," the Prime Minister said, noting Mr Macron had also invited him to the Élysée Palace before the G7.
"... only at that point had it then escalated to the possibility and likelihood of us potentially going down another track."
Mr Morrison said he made it clear to the French President that Australia was looking at alternative options. He argued that message was clearly received because the next day "the French defence system swung into full action".
He said he did not share specifics of those alternatives because they were confidential but insisted Mr Macron understood Australia's intentions.
Mr Morrison said the key issues he raised with Mr Macron about the existing contract were the technology of the submarines that were being provided and the fear of even further delays that would render the submarines "obsolete almost the minute it got wet"
Mr Morrison said Mr Macron and French authorities disputed the claim that the subs would not meet Australia's requirements, and on that point they would have to "agree to disagree".
Nuclear submarines generally have longer range and can run less detectably than the diesel-powered vessels the French were building for Australia.
The Australian government says while the French were capable of building nuclear-powered submarines, the US design had the advantage of a reactor that lasted the entire life of the vessel.
That sidesteps domestic opposition to a nuclear industry being developed in Australia.