‘I am delighted’: How Turnbull lobbied Macron to fix Australia’s relationship

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Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull lobbied French President Emmanuel Macron to back the creation of a new French-Australian think tank to help broaden Australia’s foreign policy debate and repair bilateral relations after they fell into disrepair in 2021.

Foreign Minister Penny Wong and her French counterpart, Catherine Colonna, announced the establishment of the Australia-France Centre of Excellence for the Indo-Pacific on Monday as part of a road map to elevate relations between the two countries.

Malcolm Turnbull, right, and Emmanuel Macron, pictured in 2018, kept in touch after Turnbull left office. Credit: Janie Barrett

The initiative includes the formation of a think tank, to be known as the Australia-France Indo-Pacific Studies Program, that will be embedded in an existing Australian research institution.

Turnbull said he had raised the idea of such a think tank in a meeting with Macron in Paris last year, as well as with senior Australian politicians.

“I am delighted to see that the idea has come to fruition,” Turnbull told this masthead. “It has been a long time in the making.”

Turnbull said he proposed it as a way to rebuild ties between Paris and Canberra after the Morrison government cancelled a $90 billion submarine contract with French company Naval Group in September 2021.

The decision infuriated Macron, who withdrew the French ambassador to Australia and accused Morrison of lying to him about the cancelled deal.

Although out of office, Turnbull said he had kept in regular contact with Macron to ensure he remained engaged with Australia despite his anger over the scrapped submarine contract.

Turnbull said he hoped the new think tank would enrich Australia’s foreign policy discussion by serving a complementary role to institutions such as the University of Sydney’s United States Studies Centre.

The US Studies Centre, which focuses on ways to enhance the US-Australia alliance, was founded in 2006 with a $25 million grant from the Howard government.

While he strongly supports the US alliance, Turnbull said he wanted to see Australia develop a more independent and less US-centric approach to foreign policy.

Sources familiar with the proposal said Turnbull was so invested in the idea that he sounded out prominent figures in the Australian foreign policy community to see whether they would be interested in running the then-hypothetical think tank.

The Australia-France Indo-Pacific Studies Program will seek to promote academic and policy exchanges on energy transition and climate change while increasing collaboration between French and Australian research institutions.

Turnbull said Australian knowledge of French and other European views on world affairs was alarmingly low even though the French Pacific territories of New Caledonia and French Polynesia are so close to Australia.

He warned that, despite the road map announced this week, it would take years for Australia and France to get back to where they were before the Morrison government scrapped the Naval Group deal in favour of the AUKUS nuclear-powered submarines pact with the US and United Kingdom.

“Fairly or not, AUKUS confirmed the negative stereotypes many people in Europe and around the world have about Australia – that we are totally wedded to the Anglosphere,” he said.

“This isn’t just a kiss and make-up scenario, it will be a long road to repair the damage.”

A spokesperson for the foreign minister said Turnbull had always sought to safeguard the relationship between Australia and France.

“The Australia-France Centre of Excellence for the Indo-Pacific is a key part of the bilateral road map delivered by Minister Colonna and Minister Wong,” they said.

“The government is pleased to have Mr Turnbull’s support for this initiative.”

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