Australia’s government has spent much of this week hosting the largest delegation of French business executives to visit the country in nearly twenty years. The focus is not tourism or wine, but the future of Australia’s submarine fleet. HPR’s Bill Dorman has more in today’s Asia Minute.
Australia is shopping for submarines.
The country’s latest defense “white paper” outlines plans to upgrade the protection of its strategic and trade interests in the Asia Pacific. Submarines top the list, as they have for some time. The government plans to spend about $38-billion US dollars to build a dozen next-generation undersea vessels. Contenders are from Japan, France, and Germany…and lobbying in this “competitive evaluation process” has been going on for more than a year.
This week, dozens of French executives and government officials are in Australia—in part to make the case for the version produced by France’s state-run naval contractor. The local head of Germany’s Thyssen Krupp Marine Systems says his company’s proposal doesn’t depend on a government delegation, telling Reuters “we don’t need to make those shows of visible sudden presence.”
Japan has a different sort of presentation in the works. Next month, it will showcase one of its latest submarines built by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and Kawasaki Heavy Industries, sending it to Australia for joint military exercises. The submarine decision has strategic, diplomatic and political implications….right down to Australia’s next round of national elections. The winner of the submarine contest is expected to be announced by the end of June.
