French President Emmanuel Macron and Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison in better times. (Photo by Chesnot/Getty Images)
SYDNEY: Angered by Australia’s rejection of its huge conventional sub deal, France has cast Australia out from its select group of strategic partners.
The announcement was included deep inside France’s official Indo-Pacific Strategy, a high-level effort signed out by the French Foreign Minister and featuring a forward by French President Emmanuel Macron. Aside from the swipe at Australia, the document otherwise commits France to a course clearly parallel to that of the United States and other allies: firmly committed to ensuring freedom of the seas, adherence to international law and protection of economic interests such as fisheries and oil and gas reserves.
“Australia’s decision in September 2021, without prior consultation or warning, to break off the partnership of trust with France that included the Future Submarine Program (FSP), has led to a re‐evaluation of the past strategic partnership the two countries. France will pursue bilateral cooperation with Australia on a case‐by‐case basis, according to its national interests and those of regional partners,” reads the document.
Notably, while the AUKUS deal continues to damage the Franco-Australian relationship, the document shows that relations between Paris and Washington remain on good working terms.
“France intends to maintain close relations with the United States, an ally and major player in the Indo‐Pacific, and to strengthen coordination, including on issues raised by the announcement of the AUKUS agreement,” the 67-page document says.
France remains angered by Australia’s decision to abandon its submarine deal, one known as the “deal of the century” in Paris but which Australian officials had become disenchanted with in the five years since the deal was signed.
There were indication that Canberra was starting to get cold feet with the agreement in June last year, when Greg Moriarity, the top civilian in the Australian Defense Ministry, mentioned “alternatives” to the French deal during a Senate hearing. Macron sent a personal letter to Morrison.
Then, during an August meeting between the French and Aussie defense ministers, the two sides actually issued a statement in which they “underlined the importance of the Future Submarine Program.” Of course, a careful reading of that might have noted it did not include a commitment to the program. And just a month later came the surprise announcement of AUKUS, and the accompanying political fallout.
The French government took exceptional actions after Australia announced the $65 billion sub deal was peremptorily cancelled. The French foreign minister described it as a “stab in the back,” and France briefly recalled its ambassadors from Australia and the United States the next day.
While France doesn’t reject Australia as a key partner in the Indo-Pacific, the authors are clearly taking advantage of the new strategy to send one last rocket to remind Australia just how angry the French remain about cancellation of the sub contract.
The document serves as a capstone to a series of French commitments that started when Macron delivered speeches about the region in 2018 in Australia and New Caledonia. He committed France to working with countries committed to the liberal international political order that share other interests with France, particularly Australia, India and Japan.
France maintains strategic partnerships with India, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore and Vietnam.
