Press conference with Marise Payne, Minister For Defence and her French counterpart Jean-Yves Le Drian, Garden Island Naval Base, Sydney

MARISE PAYNE:
Can I please acknowledge Deputy Chief of Navy Mike Noonan, the Fleet Commander, Stuart Mayer, the Head of Military Strategic Commitments, Gus Gilmore, the Deputy Secretary of Defence, Rebecca Skinner, and of course, His Excellency the Ambassador, Christophe LeCourtier. My very good friend and colleague, Jean-Yves Le Drian, and his French team travelling with him here today. Can I also please acknowledge Captain Paul Mandziy of HMAS Adelaide, and may I thank you Paul and your team very much for enabling us to meet here on HMAS Adelaide today, your crew for supporting us in doing that and giving us the opportunity to show my very good friend Jean-Yves the exceptional capability that our LHDs present, for the opportunity for him to have literally a bird's-eye view of Sydney this morning at her best, and also a chance to fly in one of his own French helicopters as well. So we are grateful to the Adelaide for that. I know you have made quick pace back from southern waters and it's great to see you back in Sydney.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to extend a very, very warm welcome to Australia to the French Minister for Defence, Jean-Yves Le Drian. It is not his first visit here in the last 12 months but it is certainly a very important one. It is an absolute delight to host him in Sydney today for discussions on the growing bilateral defence relationship between our countries. The Australian Government's decision to select the French company DCNS as our international partner for the Future Submarine Program has set our countries on a path to deeper materiel and industry cooperation and, on a personal basis, to significantly deeper friendship.

Jean-Yves and I have met and spoken many times in the last 12 months and particularly since that announcement to progress the intergovernmental agreement that will underpin the cooperation between our two great nations on this project. The Future Submarine Program is the largest Defence procurement program in Australia's history and it is one of, if not the most, complex. The Minister's visit to Australia demonstrates the long term commitment of the French Government at the highest levels to delivering Australia's Future Submarine fleet. Indeed, tomorrow Minister Le Drian and the Prime Minister of Australia, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, will formally agree the intergovernmental agreement; the legal framework under which Australia and France will partner on the Future Submarine Program over coming decades.

This is a critical milestone in delivering a regionally superior fleet of 12 submarines and provide significant opportunities to deepen our already very strong bilateral defence relationship. It's a decision which also highlights the increasingly close defence relationship between Australia and France more widely. And of course, this is not a new defence relationship. It spans more than a century. Our forces have battled common threats as far back as the First World War. Our countries have built on these enduring historical links ever since. Today, we continue to share a commitment to the rules-based global order and addressing security challenges to international peace and prosperity.

This morning, the Minister and I have had a broad discussion about the international security challenges in the Indo-Pacific, including continued tensions in the South China Sea. We firmly reiterated the importance of resolving disputes peacefully and in accordance with international law, including the principles of freedom of navigation and overflight. We also discussed the global coalition's efforts to combat Daesh in Iraq and Syria, of which Australia and France are both significant competitors.

I want to note here in Australia my thanks and our thanks for Minister Le Drian's leadership in the minister's small group of the counter-Daesh coalition where he and US Secretary for Defence Ash Carter have played leading roles in ensuring that the countries heavily involved in the international coalition have worked closely together, step by step in critical actions. Critical actions like the effort to retake Mosul, now underway. Critical actions like the commencement of the effort to retake Raqqa now underway. Monsieur Le Drian and I also discussed our very strong partnership here in the South Pacific, no better exemplified than the D'Entrecasteaux moored alongside here at Garden Island this week, behind me. She is based in Noumea. She is a very important part of the French fleet and it is a pleasure to have her here today and I know the Minister will take an opportunity to visit her after this.

We discussed the importance of interoperability between the Australian and French forces when responding to disasters across the region. And as I said when I commenced, I have been very pleased to show the Minister Australia's two largest navy ships, HMAS Adelaide and HMAS Canberra here at Garden Island today, together they are a significant part of Australia's humanitarian and disaster relief capability. Investments in these, investments in other advanced military capabilities allow Australia to make substantive contributions to security in the Indo-Pacific and further afield. Jean-Yves, I welcome you here very much today. I am extremely grateful for your friendship and your collegiate efforts in working together with Australia in recent months and I would like you to make a few remarks.

JEAN-YVES LE DRIEN:
[Speaks French]

INTERPRETER:
Ladies and gentleman, to you and Marise, I am pleased to be here with my team. Since this morning when we arrived in Sydney to be here on this beautiful ship, I went to greet the commanding officers and all of the crew. This is the sixth time we are meeting in this year. It is a clear expression of how vigorous our relationship is and how close we are with each other. It is the third time I have come to Australia as Minister for Defence. My first visit was at the time of the centenary of the departure of the ANZACs in Albany in November 2014. Then I came back to Sydney, Canberra and Adelaide earlier this year and now I am here on this third opportunity, which is a very important time, since we will be signing tomorrow this intergovernmental agreement regarding the application of the decision made by the Australian authorities to equip themselves with 12 submarines, in cooperation and partnership with France.

I have a very moving recollection of our relationship since I was with the Governor-General Peter Cosgrove in Villers-Bretonneux on 25 April this year for the Dawn Service and this was the day when the Australian Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull, was advising our President of the French Republic, Francois Hollande, that DCNS and France had been chosen to support the program of the future Australian submarines. I have to say that this meeting of the past of our common and shared military history and the future of this major cooperation in the area of defence, this encounter on the very same day that was a very moving symbol.

You mentioned it before, our relationship in defence terms is not only limited to submarines. Our partnership is really a strategic one. France, just like Australia, considers that the security in the Indo-Pacific has a very specific relevance and importance. France is the only European power who has Navy ship crews in this part of the world on a regular basis, including the South China Sea. I am talking to you here standing in an Australian navy ship. As you said, docked at the same quay as our new multi-mission ship, the D'Entrecasteaux, which has been based in Noumea since July and which is currently visiting Sydney. I want to recall the excellence of our military cooperation in this part of the world. Amongst others, when natural disasters hit the island countries and states in the Pacific we always jointly mobilise to come and support.

Our cooperation is also crucial in the fight against Daesh where both our countries are amongst the main contributors. We had an opportunity to talk about this major issue for our security during many meetings and Marise, you were in Paris in October for this very important meeting of the ministers of the coalition, where we wanted to agree on measures and what needs to be done to retake Mosul and Raqqa. And so it is in this context which is already quite tense and where we have joint views about strategic issues, it is in this context that you have to write this new strategic partnership between both our countries.

This project about submarines will stretch over several decades. It will bring together hundreds of French people, Australian people, members of the armed forces, business people, engineers, workers. There was already practical cooperation taking place since I will soon go to Thales, for instance, Thales, a business that's present here in Sydney but there we will really move onto a larger scale. There's already Australians living in Cherbourg right now as we're starting with the design phase and I will be supporting tomorrow - and I'll be there tomorrow when we inaugurate the offices of DCNS in Adelaide. What's most striking for me here, dear Marise, is how quickly paced we've been able to implement decisions that you made. Since then, since 26 April, there has been the contract for design mobilisation and then you chose the combat systems and you provided - and then we signed with the Attorney-General a few days ago in Paris the agreement on classified information and tomorrow we will be signing the Intergovernmental Agreement. So, the joint determination and the pace of implementation is really showcasing how this big contract, that is actually a commitment for both of us, is really starting off on the beautiful auspices of efficiency, effectiveness and positive outlooks.

And I wish to say it again, we're here in a new phase of our history and this new phase of our history go through this meeting of this morning and the meeting that will take place tomorrow which will actually be another milestone in this beautiful endeavour that we share as two countries. Thank you very much.

MARISE PAYNE:
Ladies and gentlemen, I think we have an arrangement in place for alternating questions between the French side and the Australian side. Is that right, Henry? Shall we start with our guests, with France?

QUESTION:
[Inaudible question]

MARISE PAYNE:
The question is in relation to jobs. In the supply chain and in the construction program itself over 2,800 jobs here in Australia. So that is a very significant engagement of Australian skills and expertise - Australian knowledge and technological knowhow - and something which was a key part of our decision to ensure that the submarines were built here in Australia. I will allow Monsieur Le Drian to - or ask Monsieur Le Drian to respond in relation to jobs in France.

It's also fair to say that at the moment, we have some very hectic airways across the oceans and the skies between Australia and France. We have a significant exchange of personnel between the defence organisation here in Australia and Cherbourg, between DCNS and the defence organisation in France, and that depth of exchange and that personal engagement and relationship building is, I think, pivotal to underpinning the success of this very, very significant project.

JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN:
[Speaks French]

INTERPRETER:
We will be signing tomorrow and that reaffirms the principles of our future cooperation. This document clearly states the desire to optimise and maximise the Australian involvement and mobilisation in this regard. That's a mutual commitment we've made, optimising the Australian participation, possibly progressively over time because there's a design phase that actually runs before this. But this is a challenge in which we are determined, both of us, and the numbers you mentioned in terms of employment and jobs created in Australia, in South Australia, that's absolutely in the order of things. But the French, in terms of employment, will have work to do, in the design phase and beyond to ensure that over time the knowledge transfer actually takes place in the best circumstances.

MARISE PAYNE:
Australia.

QUESTION:
[Inaudible question]

MARISE PAYNE:
Thank you very much. The question was in relation to information which was potentially leaked some years ago in relation to the Scorpène submarine. The Minister and I have discussed that in previous meetings so it was not necessary to discuss it again today. As I've said before, there is an investigation underway in France with which Australia is cooperating and that investigation is yet to be finalised so I won't be making any further comment in relation to the leak itself. What I will say in relation to security, however, security information, security of design, security of all the key aspects of this project, is that we both come to the table with the most absolute commitment to ensuring that security. From both sides, in our Intergovernmental Agreement, in other agreements which have been signed between the Attorney-General in France, in the design and mobilisation contract itself, those security protections are embedded and it is a first order issue for both of us.

JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN:
[Speaks French]

INTERPRETER:
Thank you very much for the question and I've already answered this question on several occasions, but never from Australia. There is obviously an intent to actually harm France with regard to submarines manufactured in the Scorpène generation, most certainly. The most classified information is not involved. Nevertheless, we look at this with all the seriousness that it requires, even if there's no classified information. And therefore, we want to ensure that the French courts can actually go to the end of their work and we also want to ensure that all measures necessary are taken, that new risks could not actually have an impact on the new relationship we have here in Australia. And this is the reason why we have signed this general security agreement a few days ago and that is the reason why we're implementing all the security capacities and highly sophisticated capacities in terms of technical systems, data systems and also physically protecting the actual information. So, the risks that can be identified will most certainly be covered by all these measures and our determination is total and our cooperation is just as total as our determination.

MARISE PAYNE:
France. It’s hard to hear you.

QUESTION:
[Inaudible]

MARISE PAYNE:
What we are developing is a regionally superior submarine that will meet the current achievements of the Collins class submarine and beyond. It is not detail that I am going to go into on the public record in a context such as this. The design process is still under way but the decision to choose DCNS as our international design partner and to partner with France in the international intergovernmental agreement was because we were absolutely persuaded through the CEP process that the proposition presented would achieve the best, most regionally superior submarine for Australia based on our requirements in terms of distance, in terms of stealth, in terms of all the things that one expects a submarine to do.

MARISE PAYNE:
Australia

QUESTION:
[Inaudible]

MARISE PAYNE:
Danuta, thank you very much for that question. We as a Government have been explicitly clear in all of our statements on this matter in relation to the actions of China, the building and enhancing of features, the militarisation of those features that they are quite clearly creating a region in which tension and mistrust, as my colleague the Foreign Minister said last week, between claimant states and other regional states is being unnecessarily aggravated. We have urged those who are claimants, those who are part of the region to refrain from that sort of coercive behaviour, to refrain from those sorts of actions that are designed to create tension.

We would reiterate, as I said in my remarks and as I said in my discussions with the Minister, our commitment to observation of the international laws and norms, to pursuing freedom of navigation and freedom of overflight. We encourage other states to do the same. We work closely with our colleagues and our allies, whether it's France or the United States to reinforce those points. But mostly we urge a sensible approach and we urge a reduction in tensions and this creation of unnecessary mistrust in the region.

JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN:
[Speaks French]

INTERPRETER:
I fully share Marise's analysis of the situation in the South China Sea. We are deeply attached to the freedom of movement and freedom of passage and we want to ensure it as well insofar as we apply, for the navigation of our own navy ships, the same principles. And we are clearly communicating this in practical terms. In 2017 several of our missions will actually take place in the South China Sea and on several opportunities, our Navy Ships will actually advise that they intend to actually use the freedom of navigation. It is a principle of international law in which we can certainly not give in.

MARISE PAYNE:
Thank you very much ladies and gentlemen. I think - no, I think we'll take one more from someone who hasn't asked and then if there's nothing else, we'll conclude. Eddie.

QUESTION:
[Inaudible question]

MARISE PAYNE:
Well, I think I'm self-evidently quite well, Eddie. I hope this will do for a proof of life visit for you and I'd like to take this opportunity to wish everybody a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year and hope that we all enjoy a pleasant break from the machinations of the Australian political system. Thank you all very much for being here today.

JEAN-YVES LE DRIAN:
[Speaks French]

MARISE PAYNE:
[Laughs]

INTERPRETER:
Well, Marise seems to be in good shape, in perfect shape and it's been a great pleasure to see her again here; great pleasure to actually go to Adelaide tomorrow. And also, from my end, wanted to wish you a wonderful festive season, merry Christmas and I'll have the pleasure of spending that period here in Australia.

MARISE PAYNE:
Tres bien, merci Jean-Yves.av