Today's Date:

France/Australia

Statements made by Michel Barnier, Minister of Foreign Affairs, during his joint press briefing with Alexander Downer, Australian Minister of Foreign Affairs.

Paris, February 1, 2005

FRANCE/AUSTRALIA

THE MINISTER – It has been a very great pleasure to welcome Alexander Downer for this first visit since I became Foreign Minister. We’ve had the opportunity to have a genuine, very warm dialogue on our bilateral relations and the major issues of concern in the world. I haven’t yet been to Australia, although I have a fairly long-standing attachment to this great country due to the fact that, a very long time ago, when I was a very young National Assembly Deputy, I had the good fortune and honour of chairing the France-Australia parliamentary friendship group.

Quite frankly, France and Australia’s bilateral relations are excellent: I do, however, think they could be even better on the economic front.

COOPERATION/MUSEE DU QUAI BRANLY/PACIFIC

I had the opportunity of thanking Alexander for his country’s cooperation on a special project close to our hearts, that of the Musée des Arts premiers [a museum devoted to art from Africa and Oceania], close to here. Moreover, our cooperation isn’t only cooperation between our two countries and continents, there’s also our cooperation actually in the Pacific Ocean, where France is present through her overseas territories, and here too we have good opportunities to work together.

TSUNAMI/IRAQ/MIDDLE EAST

Finally, we talked above all, of course, about the major issues on which we’re committed to pursuing peace and stability. We obviously talked about the consequences of the tsunami in Indonesia, a country close to Australia, and in the Indian Ocean [region]; we also talked about what happens now after the election which has just taken place in Iraq, and stated our desire, whatever our positions in the past, to see the political and democratic process in Iraq succeed.

We looked at what had to be the next stages of this political process, which we’re encouraging, and also talked a great deal about the chances of making 2005 the year of peace between Israelis and Palestinians.

We agreed to have very regular talks, now that we’ve got to know each other, and I agreed to the idea of paying an official visit to Australia before the end of the year.

AUSTRALIA/US/FRANCE

THE MINISTER – I'm very surprised to hear those comments since I hadn’t been aware of them. It's another reason for the [Australian] Foreign Minister and I to have regular contacts so that what we think and really feel is understood. That way we can avoid misunderstandings.

(...)

I hadn't picked up those comments, but I can talk about the substance of your question. Anti-Americanism, when it exists, is no more productive than French bashing; that's not our mood today. We can have disagreements or different analyses – that was the case for Iraq a few months ago – but we are allies with the Americans and they are allies with us, and alliance doesn't mean allegiance.

We are allies and we want to activate this alliance particularly in order to confront together a number of major challenges; we are together in a lot of instances and are confronting a lot of challenges with the Americans. We are together in Afghanistan, we were together in Kosovo, we have been together from day one in the fight against terrorism, we are together in a lot of conflict-resolution situations in Haiti and Africa. I think we have reasons for confronting together the world's great challenges which lie ahead of us. The first challenge, moreover, is for us together to succeed in getting the resumption of the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians in the next few months.

What I'm going to tell Condi Rice when she comes here next week, what we'll be saying to the United States President on 22 February is that we want to look ahead, together, as allies who respect one another and have a lot of things to do together./.