Prime Minister Scott Morrison has met face-to-face with French President Emmanuel Macron for the first time since Australia abandoned a $90 billion French submarine deal.
The brief encounter took place on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Rome and comes after Mr Macron phoned Mr Morrison prior to his departure.
During that conversation, the French president told Mr Morrison Australia's actions "broke the relationship of trust" between the two countries.
On Saturday local time, Mr Morrison told reporters in Rome that he approached President Macron at the summit and said "G’day."
“He was happy to exchange those greetings and we've known each other for a while but it's just the process of being on the road back,” he said.
Australian media travelling with Mr Morrison did not have access to the encounter but the Prime Minister's Office has released photos of the exhange.
It comes after US President Joe Biden met with his French counterpart and conceded the handling of the AUKUS submarines deal was "clumsy".
The AUKUS pact, between the United States, United Kingdom and Australia, meant Australia walked away from a highly profitable submarine deal signed with France in 2016.
Mr Biden added the deal "was not done with a lot of grace" and that he was "under the impression that France had been informed long before that the deal was not going through".
When asked about Mr Biden's comments, Mr Morrison said the US was kept informed.
"All I can say is that we kept the US administration up to date with the status of what our conversations and discussions have been with the French government," he said.
