AUKUS and the French Fallout
Dr Nicole McLean
Thursday 30th September, 192 days until the first election round
Bonjour !
Given the significance of the fallout between France and Australia following the announcement of AUKUS, we decided to dedicate out second Living The French Elections 2022 discussion group to this important issue. We were lucky enough to have guest speaker from France, Paul Soyez. Paul is a former UoM PhD student and currently works as a Policy Advisor at the French Ministry of Defence in Paris, where he advises on France’s Indo-pacific strategy. Paul spoke about the Australia-France Indo-pacific strategy and what the rupture between France and Australia, following the announcement of AUKUS, means for relations between the two countries.
France has completely lost trust in Australia.
According to Paul, it took two decades to build trust between France and Australia. And, it only took a simple text message from Australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, to French President, Emmanuel Macron, to completely shatter that trust. The way in which AUKUS was announced has increased prejudice in France against the ‘Anglosphere’.
Paul told the 32 academics that participated in the discussion, including our Deputy Vice-Chancellor International, Michael Wesley, that he fears AUKUS will antagonise the Indo-Pacific region. This is because its members (Australia, the UK and US) view China as a threat. France does not want to antagonise the region.
Although France acknowledges AUKUS as an entity, it will not engage with AUKUS unless other regional players (i.e. India and Japan) participate. If AUKUS is open and inclusive, then France would be very eager to partner with its members when other regional players are involved.
Only time will tell what AUKUS actually is, how it will operate and who it will partner with.