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Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said Thursday that he will meet with President Emmanuel Macron in France next week to repair bilateral relations that were soured when Australia's previous government canceled a submarine contract, AP reported.

Albanese said Macron invited him to visit France while he is in Europe for a NATO summit in Spain.

“We do need to reset. We’ve already had very constructive discussions. We’ve brought to a close the arrangements that were in place over submarines,” Albanese told Australian Broadcasting Corp.

Albanese's Labor Party came to power in 21 May election. Two weeks ago, his government announced that it had agreed to pay the French Naval Group 555 million euros ($583 million) in compensation for breach of contract.

Albanese pointed to estimates by bureaucrats before a Senate hearing in April that the contract breakup was expected to cost AUD $5.5 billion ($3.8 billion).

He noted that his administration had reduced that cost to AUD3.4 billion ($2.3 billion) thanks to the cooperation of Macron and the French government.

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