[Australia]: Message to France [SEC=TOP SECRET]

[Owen]

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MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET (ENCRYPTED)​

15 January 2004

Dear Ms. Dubois, Whilst we understand that France is under enormous strain right now as it is in war-mode, there are a few matters of concern that Australia needs to bring up to France. At this current point in time, we take no stance on the France-Canada conflict. This is a matter which we believe both parties should be resolving through diplomacy and transparency. Australia-France relations have generally been positive, France signed the South Pacific Forum treaties in 1999 under the previous administration. This meant that the Governments of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna have full member status in the South Pacific Forum and France, as in the government in Paris, is an observer state. The New Caledonia situation has been at the forefront of South Pacific and Oceania affairs for the past year. Australia is now getting increasingly agitated and concerned about the continued presence of foreign militaries in New Caledonia from nations which are far afield, notably Poland and Thailand. We are not as concerned about the UK as they are long-standing trusted ally of Australia and a South Pacific Forum member through the Pitcairn Islands. Whilst we recognise the immense appreciation you may have for these nations, it is ultimately best suited that the South Pacific Forum, with its network of member states across the region, take the lead on any humanitarian operations which may need to continue in New Caledonia. Rest assured, Australia will not allow any one nation to change the status quo or unilaterally annex any nation or territory in the Pacific, including those which belong to France. We don't do this for France or any other power, but to maintain the peace and security necessary for this region and so Pacific Islanders and Australians and New Zealanders can all live free and without worry in this, one of the last bastions on earth. We would appreciate it if France could give the green light for the South Pacific Forum, with the assistance of Australian Government agencies, to begin taking the lead in these operations in New Caledonia, with the goal of fully restoring New Caledonian security and self-governance within the French Kingdom. This would include personnel from the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Agency for International Development, also known as AusAID, the National Critical Care and Trauma Centre and if necessary, for logistical support, the Australian Defence Force. We think such move would be in the best interest of the Pacific, New Caledonia, France and Australia. It would be the first time in history that the South Pacific Forum has led an operation of this kind in the region and would be a great testimony to the vitality and legitimacy of the organisation. Yours sincerely, Kevin Rudd.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
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OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Alexander

 

[Alexander]

Empire de France
Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères

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From: Sophie Dubois, Ministre de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères, France
To: Kevin Rudd, Australia Owen
CC: Office of the Princess of New Caledonia
Classification: Secret

Subject: New Caledonia

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Your Excellency,

Thank you for reaching out to my Office. Due to the nature of some of the things that will be mentioned in this message I request you classify this and further communications as Secret or higher or the Australian equivalent of these.

The Empire of France is appreciative of the renewed Australian commitment to the South Pacific Forum, we also remain intent to maintain our observer status and all our member territories have indicated their intent to remain full members.

If this were one year ago we would have immediately accepted your offer, however at this time we must kindly refuse. The reason for this is because the humanitarian operation is generally complete and the military operation is reduced to only a single remaining cell which needs to be defeated. As the Kingdom of Poland and the Republic of Thailand over the past few years have developed a solid network during the French Civil War and Australia's recent isolationism, we believe that replacing their forces during this final leg of the deployment would prove to be less effective.

I can however reassure Australia on your concerns having Polish and Thai forces so close to your own territory. In the next few days the Empress will announce the creation of the Principality of New Caledonia, and appoint a local Kanak woman with long family ties to the historic indigenous powerbase as Princess along with the establishment of a Parliament and Judiciary. From that moment going forward New Caledonia will be a self-governing autonomous region within the Empire of France again. As part of this self-governing status the Parliament will also hold elections in March. I have communicated to the Polish forces that we will not allow additional forces and will be deploying our own permanent military presence there soon. Poland and Thailand will remain in the short-term only to defeat this final insurgent cell and after that will also reduce their force numbers. I have also communicated to Poland that any future combat operations must be discussed with and cleared by the new government. They will not allow any operation beyond New Caledonian territory.

I hope these measures can reassure your concerns as the presence of foreign forces has a short-term enddate now and will occur under the umbrella of a self-governing New Caledonia. I do however welcome talks between our two governments on the future and longterm relations with both our Indian Ocean and Pacific territories as well as the Empire of France at large, and encourage you to send your Ambassador or other representative to my Office so we may discuss these in person.

Sincerely,
Sophie Dubois,
Ministre de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères,

 

[Owen]

​

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET (ENCRYPTED)​

20 January 2004

Dear Ms. Dubois, I appreciate your reply and it is pleasing to hear that France will be reinstalling a new government in New Caledonia, this is all we ask for. The only acceptable options to us are a continued French presence or independence for New Caledonia. We look forward to French Forces returning to the island and we hope that they can have a cooperative relationship with the Australian Defence Force. This is in the best interest of New Caledonia and France, given the geographical distance not just between the two but also between your allies and New Caledonia. Whilst I'm sure you appreciate Polish Forces defending the island in this time of uncertainty, they simply could not deliver the same amount of firepower in the same time frame as we could should a foreign power attempt to invade the island. We're talking aircraft less than an hour away and ships a mere couple of days away. Rest assured, we stand ready to defend French Polynesia and Wallis and Futuna should it be necessary. We have sent Canada a message about not spreading the war to the Pacific, but we have yet to receive a reply. We obviously don't wish to go to war with Canada, we are cousins after all, but we simply cannot have this war come to the Pacific. We won't deploy forces to those territories at this time but we will maintain a close eye on them. Again, this is not to say we support France in this war, but that we simply don't wish for it to come to our neighbourhood. Whilst we both maintain territories in the Indian Ocean, I will just point out that our historic maritime border in the Indian Ocean, between the Kerguelen Islands and the Heard and McDonald Islands, no longer exists as Sweden unilaterally annexed those islands under the guise of a General Assembly Resolution, along with the Crozet Islands. Whilst we still maintain strong relations with western allies like the United States and United Kingdom, we have a... cordial relationship with Sweden as there are still unresolved territorial disputes within the Antarctic Convergence and we still oppose their ongoing occupation of South Africa. Now our Indian Ocean territories are only on either sides of the ocean. The closest would be the Saint Paul and Amsterdam Islands, about 3,000km off the coast of Western Australia. If New Caledonia requires it, we are happy to have the Australian Electoral Commission, along with other state or territory electoral commissions, with their long history of understanding the democratic process, send volunteers and observers to the New Caledonia election in March. Australia has one of the most robust democracies in the world and this has been demonstrated time and time again with consistent elections for federal and state governments. Yours sincerely, Kevin Rudd.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
UNOFFICIAL	No Business Impact	No damage. This information does not form part of official duty.
OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Alexander

 

[Owen]

​

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET (ENCRYPTED)​

20 April 2004

Dear Ms. Dubois, With the withdrawal of all Canadian Forces from French territories and the cessation of hostilities between France and Canada, the Australian Government will once again revamp pressure on both the French Government and other governments with a presence in New Caledonia to begin the drawing down of foreign forces on the island to be replaced with the French Armed Forces. This is a matter of the utmost concern to the Australian Government given the proximity of New Caledonia to Australian territory and the possibility of the presence or movements of foreign forces to be miscalculated by both the Australian Government or any of our Pacific partners, which could lead to direct confrontation, which we of course aim to avoid. The South Pacific Forum is committed to Pacific problems being solved by Pacific nations and territories, not by far flung European (excluding those with territories in the region) or Asian powers. As a matter which the Australian Government closely monitors and takes issue with and being a matter which hinders the full flourishment of relations between Australia and France, we strongly advise that this be taken seriously. It's not a matter which you can just hope will be ignored or not noticed by any foreign power. Yours sincerely, Kevin Rudd.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
UNOFFICIAL	No Business Impact	No damage. This information does not form part of official duty.
OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Alexander

 

[Alexander]

Empire de France
Ministère de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères

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From: Sophie Dubois, Ministre de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères, France
To: Kevin Rudd, Australia Owen
CC: Office of the Princess of New Caledonia
Classification: Secret

Subject: New Caledonia

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Your Excellency,

My apologies for the lack of response to your last message, as you most likely understand the realities of war focused my attention elsewhere.

The Empire of France can assure you that the security situation on New Caledonia is a top concern for Her Imperial Majesty and her government. We are currently preparing the deployment of 10,000 soldiers, 10 aircraft, one destroyer, 7 frigates and a nuclear attack submarine for the security of our Pacific territories including New Caledonia. We are also intending to negotiate with Poland and Thailand on the withdrawal of their forces from New Caledonia now it is no longer needed.

All that being said, the Empire of France came to these decisions out of its own initiative and no external pressure. France, our devolved governments and only us decide who can station forces on our territories. As such we do hereby protest this infringement by Australia of France's and New Caledonia's sovereignty. At this time we will attach no actions to this protest, but should it continue we must recommend to our devolved governments the withdrawal from the South Pacific Forum.

Sincerely,
Sophie Dubois,
Ministre de l'Europe et des Affaires étrangères,

 

[Owen]

​

MINISTER FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS​

SECURITY CLASSIFICATION: TOP SECRET (ENCRYPTED)​

20 April 2004

Dear Ms. Dubois, I am unsure as to what you are referring to. There has been no infringement of France or New Caledonia’s sovereignty by us, so I’m unclear with what you are taking protest with? Yours sincerely, Kevin Rudd.

Parliament House, CANBERRA, ACT 2600 Telephone: (02) 6277 7700​

Protective Marking:	Business Impact Level:	Compromise of Information Confidentiality:	Required to be Encrypted:
UNOFFICIAL	No Business Impact	No damage. This information does not form part of official duty.
OFFICIAL	Low Business Impact	No or insignificant damage. This is the majority of routine information.
OFFICIAL: Sensitive	Low to Medium Business Impact	Limited damage to an individual, organisation or government generally if compromised.
PROTECTED	High Business Impact	Damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
SECRET	Extreme Business Impact	Serious damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.
TOP SECRET	Catastrophic Business Impact	Exceptionally grave damage to the national interest, organisations or individuals.

Alexander