French President Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977 in the city of Amiens.

He is the youngest president of said today in Bangkok that the proposal of Paris for cooperation with Australia, concerning submarines, is still "on the table", reported AFP, quoted by BTA.

"It's known, it's still on the table," he said, recalling that these are conventionally powered submarines.

Yesterday, Macron spoke with Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in Indonesia.

The conclusion of a security and defense pact between Australia, the United States and Britain caused Canberra to cancel in 2021 a large-scale contract to buy 12 French diesel submarines to be built in Australia.  

Australia to build eight nuclear-powered submarines

Canberra has decided instead to buy American or British nuclear-powered submarines, but that will take time and the Australians need to quickly upgrade their capabilities in light of China's growing influence in the region.

"We will see how the Australians adapt to the difficulties," Macron said.

He noted that "for the time being, they have not decided to change their strategy on the issue", although Australia has a new prime minister - Anthony Albanese - who, together with the French leader, is committed to improving bilateral relations strained by the submarine incident.

"It's about a fundamental choice, we need to understand whether they will decide to produce submarines on their territory or not, or whether they will decide to turn to nuclear technology or not," Macron said.

The French president reminded that his country does not sell nuclear submarines abroad and the offer still provides for diesel submarines.

The French decision offers Australia an opportunity to guarantee its "freedom and sovereignty", he pointed out, reminding that in this case Australia would undertake the production of the submarines itself.

The Australian crisis has greatly damaged the Indo-Pacific strategy of Paris, which owns quite a bit of territory and maritime space in the region.

A French nuclear submarine has returned from a trip to the South China Sea

"In this highly contested region - an arena of confrontation between the two first world powers, our strategy is to defend freedom and sovereignty, the balance preserving maritime freedoms, balanced cultural exchanges, economic exchanges, technological development, without any hegemonic model prevailing." pointed out Emmanuel Macron

Emmanuel Macron was born on December 21, 1977 in the city of Amiens.

He is the youngest president of

Emmanuel Macron