Australia and France strengthen military ties in the Indo-Pacific with an eye on China

Sydney (Australia), Dec 4 (EFE).- Australia and France announced this Monday a bilateral roadmap that contemplates the strengthening of bilateral military cooperation to address global challenges, especially in the Indo-Pacific region, where looks askance at China’s growing influence.

“We are going to expand cooperation and interoperability through reciprocal access to military installations… and the increase in joint activities,” French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna said today at a press conference in Canberra, alongside her Australian counterpart, Penny Wong.

Colonna, who began a two-day official visit to Australia today, explained that French President Emmanuel Macron seeks to strengthen its cooperation with the island countries of this region, as well as aspires to a trilateral alliance with New Delhi and Canberra.

“We need to do it to face global challenges and to preserve the rules of spatial order that we value so much and that are sometimes shaken,” said the head of diplomacy of France – a country that maintains some 7,000 soldiers stationed in the territories it controls the Pacific and Indian oceans.

The French “always support our allies and partners, especially when they face hostile confrontations,” giving as an example attempts to “exercise their right to navigate freely,” Colonna said.

Likewise, France and Australia reaffirmed their opposition to “any coercion or destabilizing action in the South China Sea, including the militarization of disputed areas”, as well as “the importance of peace and stability in the Taiwan Strait”, according to a joint statement released by Wong’s office.

“We are united to share global challenges, as well as in Europe, the Middle East and the Indo-Pacific,” Wong said in the press conference broadcast on the Australian Foreign Ministry’s YouTube channel.

The “Australia-France Bilateral Roadmap” launched today in Canberra also includes initiatives in favor of resilience and the fight against the climate crisis in the Pacific, as well as education, research and culture.

France has redoubled its efforts to gain influence in the Indo-Pacific – a key region for the global economy – after Australia signed the AUKUS security pact in 2021 with the United States and the United Kingdom with which it gained access to nuclear-powered submarines.

As a result of AUKUS, the previous government of Australian conservative Scott Morrison canceled an agreement with Paris for the construction of a dozen conventional submersibles, which created a diplomatic crisis between Australia and France, which subsided after Labor’s Anthony Albanese took office. the reins of the Canberra Executive in May 2022.