French president visits Garden Island
During his three-day official visit to Australia this week, French President Emmanuel Macron met Royal Australian Navy personnel and toured facilities at Fleet Base East, in Sydney.
CAPTION: Royal Australian Navy personnel and guests listen to French President Macron onboard HMAS Canberra. Photo by Lieutenant Andrew Ragless.
In a sign of strengthening ties between the two countries, Mr Macron and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull visited submarine HMAS Waller and Landing Helicopter Dock HMAS Canberra berthed at Garden Island.
Mr Macron toured HMAS Canberra where he met with French and Australian sailors and inspected some of the ADF’s most sophisticated capabilities, including the Navy’s MRH-90 Taipan helicopter, Army’s Tiger Armed Reconnaissance Helicopter and the Hawkei and Bushmaster Protected Mobility Vehicles, all designed and built with a heavy French influence.
More recently, Australia’s relationship with France was enhanced by the Future Submarine Program. The next generation of 12 Shortfin Barracuda submarines will be constructed in Adelaide, with French company DCNS selected as the preferred international partner for the design.
The $50 billion Future Submarine Project is the largest and most complex Defence acquisition Australia has ever undertaken.
Commanding Officer HMAS Canberra Captain Ashley Papp said his crew worked hard to host the event and were delighted to host the President and his official entourage.
“Our relationship with France is important to Australia, with common views on global security issues and cooperation in the region,” Captain Papp said.
“Australia and France are very much committed, and already working together, to preserve peace and security in the South East Asia and Pacific regions.
“This is done primarily through ADF engagement with the French Armed Forces of New Caledonia, based in Noumea.
“We also work together to provide coordinated humanitarian and disaster relief, which was demonstrated by the efforts of HMAS Canberra in Fiji in 2016, following Tropical Cyclone Winston.”
Australia and France also participate together in Indo-Pacific exercises and cooperate on regional maritime surveillance operations run by the Forum Fisheries Agency.
Later this month amphibious ship HMAS Choules will deploy to Noumea to take part in Exercise Croix du Sud, a biennial, multinational military exercise hosted by the French Armed Forces in New Caledonia, with a scenario based on the devastating aftermath of a category four cyclone.
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