PARIS — Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese will visit French President Emmanuel Macron in Paris after attending a summit of NATO leaders in Madrid at the end of the month.
“Prime Minister Albanese was invited by President Macron during their first phone conversation to visit Paris. The prime minister has now confirmed he will visit Paris when he is in Europe for the NATO summit next week,” an Australian diplomat told POLITICO.
Albanese told Australia’s ABC on Thursday that the visit was in the diary. The Elysée has yet to confirm the meeting.
France and Australia had a diplomatic clash last year when Canberra scrapped a contract for French submarines and instead formed a pact with the U.K. and the U.S. to acquire nuclear-powered vessels.
Since the new Australian government took office this year, the Franco-Australian relationship appears to have improved. The reset of French-Australian relations is also good news for trade negotiations between the EU and Australia, which had stalled following the submarine spat. The negotiations have since resumed, but there is still a long way before a deal is struck.
