French ambassador: 'Remains to be seen' if Australia, France can restore trust

France's Ambassador to Australia Jean-Pierre Thebault says it "remains to be seen" if the two countries can be "friends again" as he prepares to make his way back to Canberra.

Mr Thebault was initially recalled to Paris in the wake of the Commonwealth government scrapping its $90 billion deal with Naval Group in favour of US nuclear-powered submarines.

He was, however, told to return to Australia to “redefine the relationship” between the two nations as well as putting an end to the submarine deal.

[birgittabirgersdatter]

France destroyed that trust by not delivering.

[JohnWilliams-iwoq]

Can we look at the facts,
1940 France surrendered to Germany after just weeks of attack and then refused to form a union with Great Britain to fight on against Germany.
WW2 France refused to sail their navy to Britain to fight Germany leaving Britain to worry that the German's would get their hands on the ships.
1958 France refused to join an international strike force and went alone on becoming a nuclear armed country.
1966 France left NATO Central Command leaving it's allies in a very vulnerable position right at the height of the cold war.
1970's France started atmospheric testing of nuclear weapons on Mururroa Atoll and ignoring protests from Australia and New Zealand.
1985 France bombed and sank the Rainbow Warrior in Auckland harbour violating New Zealand's sovereignty!
Talk about trustworthy, we don't need bloody enemies with friends like France.

[vickersonp]

Simple question to French ambassador …..Australia lost hundreds of lives defending France in both world wars. How many Frenchmen lost their lives defending Australia?

[dapto]

France are fair weather friends so I say good riddance to faulty people

[Tbhsixty]

Don't remember them being our friends when they blew up nuclear bombs in our backyard

[Aliens_Gonna_Get_Ya]

Dunno one person who cares what France thinks...

[desertdog]

Have you seen the new French tanks? They have one forward speed and 6 in reverse.

[maxstrength]

There where consultations for months with the French that Australia was unhappy and likely to cancel the contract.

[olliefoxx]

If the French had a signed contract of intention then there should be some form of monetary recompensation. If not, that's business and the French are in no position to act offended. They've done the same thing to others. Remember the ships Russia had paid for and had sailors in France waiting to sail them back to Russia? France reneged on that deal and the Russians HAD ALREADY PAID THEM.

[agent]

France is living 200 years in the past.

[onlyweknow]

Now if the French wanna insult Australians with a comment like that then they were never your friends in the first place!

[roystad]

What has France ever done for Australia, jack shit I bet.

[lat]

Don't trust any of them. Joey does nothing but lie

[robertgrey]

France, you want the past relationship to be restored then you must return all money paid in anticipation of the building and delivery of those subs

Therefore, it up to France to show good will to restore the friendship by, like I said, returning all money paid for something not delivered.

France, don't forget the Australian blood shed in WWs 1 and 2 to liberate France from German occupation.

[grahamgillies]

If the French behaviour toward Britain and Britex is any indication of their perception of trust and cooperation, Australia is "well out"of any involvement with those selfseving French.

[mikespike]

So you were grateful for Aussies helping you beat back the Germans when you needed us?!

[markbarker]

My neighbour Pierre had an old diesel tractor sitting out under a tree. I mentioned I would be in the market for a tractor one day . He said he could get his old diesel tractor up and running and maybe I would want to buy it off him for 500 bucks ? . I said “yeah nah maybe”, knowing full well that he’d never get around to fixing that ol’ tractor but also knowing that he was getting grief at home for never selling all his old machinery he had laying around. Years later I finally needed a good tractor and got myself a new one. Pierre saw me driving it while he was going past with his missus and pretended to be very upset and felt betrayed that I had not bought his old diesel tractor that was still there sitting under the tree in his yard - heck he reckoned that tractor was probably worth 750 bucks now seeing how it was such a good one .Point is both of us knew that nothing was ever going to come of that ‘deal’ from the get go and neither of us was really that upset about the outcome 😉

[lloydcummins]

Let’s not get too worried, the French caused the Vietnam war then just walked away & rolled over for the Nazis, so just move on.

[joan]

Please ... France get a grip grow up..

[candycanessongs]

So about the Rainbow Warrior and Muira Atoll?