AUKUS may be in breach of NPT rules, says France

Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made the comments during a speech in Jakarta late on Wednesday.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo, right, welcomes Jean-Yves Le Drian to during the presidential palace in Jakarta on Wednesday. Picture: AFP

France has warned the transfer of nuclear submarine technology to Australia under the AUKUS agreement could breach non-proliferation rules, and that the trilateral security pact with the US and UK was unnecessarily confrontational with China.

French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian made the comments during a speech in Jakarta late on Wednesday in which he reiterated his government’s anger over Australia’s decision to cancel its $90bn French submarine deal and instead pursue British or American nuclear submarine technology.

“We formerly had a good partnership, it was ongoing and it came to an end in a second. (Australia) acted behind our back on military, on strategic issues. They did not tell us about it and we found out about all of that by listening to a press conference. This is a trust crisis,” Mr Le Drian said in answer to a question during his address to the Centre for Strategic and International Studies.

The French minister also questioned the wisdom of the AUKUS agreement’s underlying purpose which he said was “about expressing a stance of confrontation with China”, and raised concerns over the transfer of nuclear submarine technology from one of only five ­nuclear states within the NPT to a non-nuclear country.

“Until now none of these five countries transferred to any other country nuclear technology to power submarines. And that is no longer the case. So if tomorrow Australia has some nuclear-powered submarines, why not some other countries could ask for nuclear technology, including Indonesia? Why not?” he said. “Even though this technology is not covered by the NPT, nonetheless it is a trend which is of concern.”

Mr Le Drian’s comments during his three-day trip to Indonesia this week echo similar concerns raised by Jakarta over the AUKUS agreement, which it has warned could spike regional tensions and even spark an arms race.

Senior Indonesian foreign ministry officials have said the transfer of nuclear technology to Australia would represent the exploitation of a loophole within the international treaty that must be plugged, and have flagged their intention to raise the issue at the next five-yearly review of the NPT scheduled for next January.

France’s explicit support for that position now raises the stakes that Australia could face an international coalition at that meeting opposed to its nuclear-submarine aspirations.

Australian Strategic Policy Institute Indonesia analyst David Engel said the fact that France was now echoing Indonesia’s official NPT concerns over the AUKUS pact suggested that “Australia hasn’t heard the last of this from Jakarta”.

“We should be getting on the front foot with Indonesia on this, and work openly towards putting in place measures to assuage its non-proliferation concerns,” Dr Engel said.

Mr Le Drian was in Indonesia as part of what appears to be a pointed campaign by Paris to shore up an Indo-Pacific strategy that excludes Australia.

Ahead of the trip, the French Foreign Ministry issued a video explaining its strategy for a free and open Indo-Pacific that named numerous partners, including India, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, ASEAN and New Zealand, but not Australia. Mr Le Drian’s visit included talks over the potential sale of 36 Rafale fighter jets to Indonesia, and an $810m pledge to help Indonesia accelerate its transition to green energy. He said France wanted to be the go-between of Indo-Pacific and Europe and that strategic cooperation would be one of its priorities when it assumed the presidency of the EU in 2022.