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Neglect concerning the scuttled submarine deal that plunged Australia-France relations to an historic low. Paris and Canberra are performing like besties once more, because of soccer and on-line bantz.
French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese have spent a lot of the weekend joshing about their nationwide groups — Les Bleues and the Matildas — dealing with off within the quarter-finals of the Ladies’s World Cup, which Australia is co-hosting with New Zealand.
Forward of the Saturday match, Albanese threw down the gauntlet in a social media submit. “How a couple of guess @EmmanuelMacron? If [Australia] win tonight, you’ll help Australia within the semi-finals. If [France] win, I’ll help France. Deal?” the Aussie chief wrote. Macron gamely accepted the challenge, not with out first praising Australia for “brilliantly” co-organizing the match.
The camaraderie is a far cry from the place the 2 nation’s relations stood in 2021, when France recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the U.S. after the 2 international locations and the U.Okay. had minimize a deal — dubbed AUKUS— to offer Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, which entailed the cancellation of a pre-existing €53 billion contract with France. Paris’s fury on the loss was palpable, with French Overseas Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian calling AUKUS “actually a stab within the again.”
That ire seems to have subsided, at the least in the case of soccer. After the Matildas defeated Les Bleues 7-6 in an exciting penalty shoot-out on Saturday, Macron stated he’ll respect the guess. Which may not have been too exhausting, given whom Australia is taking part in towards within the subsequent spherical. “Nothing private towards our English pals, however a guess is a guess,” Macron posted. “Good luck Australia for the semi-finals!”
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