Australian and French ministers were to meet yesterday in a fresh drive to mend fences 16 months after Canberra pulled the plug on a big submarines contract, leaving Paris seething.
A bitter row erupted in September 2021 when then-Australian prime minister Scott Morrison abruptly tore up a contract for France to build a dozen diesel-powered submarines and announced a deal to buy US or British nuclear-powered subs.
The submarine row came as part of a new security pact between Australia, the UK and the US — dubbed AUKUS — aimed at countering a rising China.
Photo: AFP
The row derailed relations and threatened to sink an EU-Australia trade agreement, but the two sides have begun to make up since Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese took power in Canberra, vowing to fix links with Paris.
French President Emmanuel Macron in November last year said that his nation’s submarine offer “remains on the table,” a day after meeting with Albanese at a G20 summit in Indonesia.
The submarines would be conventional, not nuclear, and built in Australia, Macron said.
Albanese in July last year hailed a new start in ties during a visit to Paris, adding that he would act with “trust, respect and honesty.”
Yesterday’s meeting in Paris of French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna and French Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu with their Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs Penny Wong (黃英賢) and Australian Minister for Defence Richard Marles was to build on “the positive momentum” seen since Albanese’s trip, French foreign ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said.
An official at the French defense ministry said that “the relationship is back on track,” but needed to be deepened if it is to result in “concrete actions.”
It was not yet clear whether yesterday’s meeting would lead to such tangible results, the official said.
France considers itself a Pacific power, thanks to its overseas territories including New Caledonia and French Polynesia, and observers say better relations with Canberra would help it assert influence there, but it is uncertain how far Macron wants to align his strategy there with that of the AUKUS members.
A French army officer said that the Asia-Pacific region “is a major zone of interest for both China and the United States.”
The officer, speaking on condition of anonymity, added that China’s ambitions in the region “require a strategic response,” but that France should be wary of joining what could be seen as an “anti-China coalition.”
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