After the head of the Australian government, it is the turn of his ministers to come to France for a symbolic visit. French and Australian Ministers of Defense and Foreign Affairs are meeting Monday, January 30 in Paris, in the common hope of rebuilding broken ties after the so-called “Aukus” submarine crisis. The French hoping to hold an opportunity to revive its Asia-Pacific strategy.
Trust between Paris and Canberra was shattered in September 2021 when the former Australian Conservative government abruptly canceled a contract worth 90 billion Australian dollars (56 billion euros) for submarines from the French group Naval Group, him preferring British or American nuclear-powered submarines. Bilateral relations remained tense until the election in May 2022 of a new Australian Prime Minister, Anthony Albanese, who has since sought to ease relations with Paris.
On Monday, the head of French diplomacy Catherine Colonna and the Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu will hold a joint meeting with their counterparts Penny Wong and Richard Marles, at the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs, to extend the “positive dynamic initiated after the visit of the Australian Prime Minister” last July, explained Anne-Claire Legendre, spokeswoman for the Quai d’Orsay. The relationship is “restarted”, but the two countries must deepen it to achieve “concrete acts”, we add in the entourage of the French Minister of the Armed Forces, without advancing on possible announcements.
Discussions with French ministers “will help develop and align French and Australian responses to the increasingly challenging strategic environment in the Indo-Pacific and Europe,” Penny Wong and Richard Marles said in a statement. common. They expect progress in developing a roadmap “to strengthen collaboration” including in the areas of defence, security and climate action.
Asia-Pacific is “an area of ??major interest for both China and the United States,” a French military officer who requested anonymity told Agence France-Presse. China’s undisguised ambition in this area “requires a strategic response”.
France, like the United States and many Western countries, are trying to strengthen their positions in this region, a vast area stretching from the East African coasts to the West American coasts through which passes a crucial part of world trade and where China increases its influence. France has many territories and maritime spaces there, which offer it a right of inspection and impose constant vigilance on geostrategic balances, but also on environmental and fisheries issues, as well as on the fight against the various traffics linked to the oceans.
France has also increased its military presence, giving priority, in addition to its own points of support, to increasing cooperation with neighboring countries. It has multiplied joint exercises (India, Japan) and patrols in the China Sea, which concentrates tensions and where Beijing multiplies provocations and demands. The conclusion of the Aukus alliance between Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, with the corollary of the cancellation by Canberra of the contract for the acquisition of twelve French submarines, had sealed its ambitions in 2021.
President Emmanuel Macron claims the role of Paris as a “power of balance”, that is to say aligned neither with Beijing nor with Washington. Nevertheless, the remoteness of the metropolis and the weakness of the French arsenal in the area against these two superpowers are hardly compatible with these ambitions. The French strategy lacks “visibility”, say senators in this regard in a report published last week.
In this nerve center of world trade, Paris must strengthen cooperation without giving the impression of having an “anti-Chinese device”, opines the military officer. According to him, “France has chosen not to participate in any coalition that would possibly be perceived as anti-Chinese”. With Australia, “there is an issue: we are a border country” via New Caledonia, also underlines the entourage of Sébastien Lecornu.
Other areas discussed include cyber, submarine cable security and information warfare. “It’s a less visible area” than the signing of contracts, the same source assures us. But it is also an area where China is asserting its influence.