French ambassador says leak of Macron text ‘new low’ as submarines rift deepens

Jean-Pierre Thebault says Morrison government's deceit was intentional' and questions whether any country could trust the value of Australia's signature'

The French ambassador has denounced the Australian government's release of a private text message from Emmanuel Macron as an unprecedented new low", arguing other world leaders would now worry their words might be weaponised" against them.

Jean-Pierre Thebault said the leaking of the text message from the French president was a setback in terms of truth and trust", and it would be sad" if this was the Australian government's answer to France's request for concrete actions to heal the relationship.