Tribune. As deplorable and sad as it may be, the breach of the “contract of the century” between France and Australia can be explained if we put ourselves in the place of the Australians. In their situation, the French would very probably have made the same choice: that of the highest possible guarantee for their security and sovereignty, both threatened by the People’s Republic of China, Australia’s main client. .
Signed between the United States, Australia and the United Kingdom, Aukus [sigle donné à ce nouveau pacte de sécurité sur la base de l’acronyme Australia, United Kingdom, United States] updates, in the age of Chinese imperialism, their military solidarity during the Cold War. On the scale of the Pacific space, China is the neighbor of Australia, like Russia is of the European Union (EU).
Neither reversal of alliance nor aggression
Since 2017, Australians have shown determination and courage to break free from the interdependence with China and to resist its pressures which, in defiance of the rules of the World Trade Organization (WTO) and maritime law international, are constant and enormous: accelerated development of the navy and submarine fleet, arbitrary customs barriers, insults and public threats by diplomats, arrest of Australian journalists, espionage of the Chinese Communist Party which manipulates the Australian Chinese diaspora, corruption of parliamentarians , attempt to control key points of the Australian economy, for example by anchoring the State of Victoria to the “new silk roads”, and so on.
As annoying as it is, the attitude of Australians towards France therefore follows a legitimate logic. Brutal and unfair, the rupture is the fruit of a sincere quest for strategic autonomy by Australian society. Let us remain lucid: this is neither a reversal of alliance nor an aggression. Australia remains a friendly country, and the United States an ally. The affair confirms, moreover, the power of the American defense industry, strong of a competitive integration, while that of the Europeans remains fragmented. But that is not the point.
Objectively, the Europeans, and by construction the French, have a more ambiguous and less determined policy than the Americans towards China and the Indo-Pacific. Biden, from his election campaign, then during his European tour in the spring, issued a clear message: Europeans are allies of the United States; together they have a common strategic rival: China; Europeans and Americans should therefore stand together in the face of it.
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