On an official visit to Perth, Adelaide and Sydney, France’s Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade reaffirmed the strength of the Franco-Australian relationship, and paid tribute to Ambassador Pierre-André Imbert, who leaves Australia this weekend to take up his new role at the Elysée.
Against a backdrop of geopolitical tension, global trade uncertainty and shifting economic alliances, Nicolas Forissier, France’s Minister Delegate for Foreign Trade and Attractiveness, completed a four-day official visit to Australia. Perth, Adelaide and finally Sydney: a packed itinerary of ministerial meetings, site visits and addresses to the French community. His message never wavered from one city to the next: France intends to be far more than a partner in name only for Australia.
First European minister in Sydney since the free trade agreement
The visit follows the signing of the free trade agreement between Australia and the European Union, and Forissier was quick to underline its symbolic weight: he is the first European minister to travel to Australia since that signing. “Among the European countries, we really want to do something, to go further,” he told the French community gathered in Sydney. “This is a very important step for us, and I wanted to show it.” The Franco-Australian relationship, he recalled, rests on solid foundations: shared values, a common vision of the world, and cooperation already active across many domains. It is on those foundations that he intends to build.
The meeting with Australian Trade Minister Don Farrell, held in the Clare Valley over a tasting of wines and cheeses from both countries, captured the spirit of the visit perfectly: warm, direct, and grounded in mutual trust. “It is in moments like these that you really understand who you are and how to work together,” Forissier confided to his audience in Sydney. With characteristic self-deprecation, he admitted to being genuinely impressed by the Australian wines: “At times I wondered whether someone had slipped me a French wine without telling me. It was really very good.” A declaration that will no doubt delight the producers of the Clare Valley.
Critical minerals and rare earths: the strategic cornerstone
At the heart of the agenda lies the question of critical minerals and rare earths. “The tectonic plates of international trade are grinding violently against each other right now,” the minister told reporters, citing both the rise of Chinese industrial overcapacity and the hardening of US trade policy. In response, France is seeking to diversify its partnerships and secure its supply chains, particularly in the sectors of new technologies and the energy transition. Australia, as a major producer of strategic resources, sits naturally at the centre of that strategy. France already participates, through its inter-ministerial delegate, in the G7 high-level committee working to build collective resilience around these essential resources.
The figures speak to a French presence in Australia far deeper than is often assumed: 900 French companies, more than 80,000 employees, and a footprint spanning high-tech industries, financial services, agribusiness, transport and energy infrastructure. In a concrete sign of this momentum, French investment fund Infravia made its first overseas investment in Australia, committing 50 million euros to a local project. Forissier also met in Sydney with representatives of major Australian superannuation funds, to showcase investment opportunities in France. The ambition, he made clear, runs in both directions: not only growing the French presence in Australia, but attracting Australian capital into the French economy.
From Bouygues to SMEs: France at work
In Adelaide, the minister visited the Western Harbour Tunnel construction site, a colossal project stretching more than 10 kilometres, with Bouygues as one of the consortium’s lead operators, at a total cost of 10 billion euros. Standing among the tunnelling machines being assembled on site, Forissier let his pride show: deep inside this Australian tunnel, it is French expertise doing the digging. But beyond the major groups already established here, one of his most pointed messages was directed at the small and mid-sized French companies yet to make the move. “They need to come here more often, make contacts, build partnerships,” he urged. “I know they will find an excellent French team here ready to support them.”
The geostrategic dimension was never far from the surface either. France is the only European country with a genuine territorial and maritime presence in the Indo-Pacific, making it a natural interlocutor for Australia on regional security, maritime surveillance, counter-trafficking and a shared approach to stability in the region. “We are neighbours in the Indo-Pacific,” the minister reminded his audience, before turning warmly to the French community assembled in Sydney. He saluted those who carry “French excellence and pride” in their daily lives, paid tribute to the French Film Festival and other cultural touchstones, and confessed, with a smile, to having been so charmed by Australia, from the sunset over Cottesloe Beach in Perth to the sunrise he had promised himself the next morning in Sydney, that he had briefly entertained the idea of staying. “Mr Ambassador, if you see the President, tell him I might be available as ambassador here.”
Pierre-André Imbert: a farewell at the highest level
The remark carried particular resonance that evening. For the gathering was also a farewell to Ambassador Pierre-André Imbert, the very man Forissier had described in his press conference as a “superb ambassador” who had done “an enormous amount of work over the past two and a half years.” Imbert leaves Australia this weekend to take up the position of Secrétaire Général de l’Elysée, the highest-ranking post in the French civil service and the role of chief adviser to the President of the Republic. A promotion commensurate with an exceptional tenure.
Several prominent Australian political figures took the floor to pay tribute. Matt Thistlethwaite, Assistant Minister for Immigration, Assistant Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Jerome Laxale MP both spoke in his honour. It was Zoe McKenzie MP who, on behalf of the Parliamentary Friends of France, perhaps found the most fitting words of the evening.
She first thanked France for its stated commitment to facilitating Australia’s EU free trade agreement through European approval processes, “not always guaranteed from our friends in the Hexagone,” she noted with a smile, before saluting the ambassador’s role in revitalising the bilateral relationship across “all domains, from gastronomy to critical minerals, language to logistics.” Words that ring self-evidently true to all those who had the privilege of working alongside him.
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