hasn't ruled out formally apologising to French President Emmanuel Macron over a submarine furore, saying "everyone should be able to trust me".
The prime minister will have a one-on-one meeting with Mr Macron over lunch at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Friday when he will seek to repair the relationship, which was damaged after with a French shipbuilder.
Mr Albanese on Thursday met with the former Coalition finance minister and current OECD Secretary-General Mathias Cormann, with the pair warmly shaking hands in front of flags representing its member nations.
He then addressed the OECD council and was asked questions by members, including the United States, about Australia's action on climate change, Lithuania, Australia's aid to Ukraine, Japan and international law in the Indo-Pacific.
Later at a press conference, Mr Albanese did not directly answer when asked if he would apologise to France over the cancelled contract.
"I look forward to having a constructive relationship with President Macron," he said.
"I've made it very clear what my position is about the way in which Australia engaged at a leadership level with friends.
"What I want to do though is to make sure that we can move forward ... It should be a relationship where we can rely upon each other ... in which we can trust each other and mutually benefit."
When asked if French businesses could trust him after the "betrayal" and "deception" over the submarine contract under the previous Coalition government, Mr Albanese said "absolutely".
"Everyone should be able to trust me, that's the way I deal with people ... that's how I got to be prime minister," he said.
The previous government led by former prime minister Scott Morrison decided to scrap the contract with Naval Group last year in favour of nuclear-powered submarines, under the AUKUS partnership with the UK and US.
Mr Macron later told Australian journalists "I don't think, I know" when asked if he thought Mr Morrison had lied to him in his handling of the issue.
In his first phone call with his new Australian Labor counterpart after the May federal election, Mr Macron reminded Mr Albanese of what Paris described as a "severe breach of trust".
Mr Albanese said it was time for the relationship between Paris and Canberra to "enter a new dawn" after a "breakdown".
The prime minister said he would also discuss a free trade deal with Europe during his meeting with Mr Macron and that the leaders would have "more to say" afterwards.
"President Macron wants to have a good relationship with Australia, and Australia wants to have a good relationship with him," Mr Albanese said.
No easy decision on submarine deal, Richard Marles says
A decision on whether Australia would choose US or UK-made nuclear submarines as part of the AUKUS had no "obvious choices", according to Defence Minister Richard Marles.
He said the government was looking to make a decision quickly on which nuclear vessels Australia would acquire as part of the trilateral security pact.
An 18-month assessment of the security pact is due by March next year, when it's expected to be known when the new nuclear submarines would be operational.
Mr Marles said it was critical for decisions surrounding the submarines be made quickly, due to the capability gap.
"There's a process that's being worked through with both the United Kingdom and the United States, so they're not obvious choices, which is probably the most important thing I can say right now," he told Sky News on Friday.
"We are going to work through that process in an expeditious way, we need to have an answer to this question quickly because it's the first step ... and what submarine we ultimately run with will determine when we can get it."
It's expected the first nuclear submarine in Australia won't be operational until 2040.
While there had been talks from the previous government that US-built nuclear submarines could be bought to fill the capability gap in the interim, those suggestions have been rebuked.
Mr Marles said while there had been a change in tone, the new government was supportive of the AUKUS alliance.
"We're not about to walk away from any of Australia's national interests, in fact the opposite, we're about advancing them and advancing them in a much stronger way," he said.
"We're going to do the hard work to build our strategic space and make sure Australia is in a position to be there to advance our national interests with a strong defence force."
The fractured relations between the two nations are one of two reasons negotiations for the trade deal have stalled, the other being a lack of climate change action by Australia.
Mr Albanese also met with France's peak business body and its largest employer federation, Mouvement des Entreprises de France, to discuss investment opportunities in Australia.
He is also awaiting security advice on whether he can , Kyiv, after an invitation by President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
