You are Australian ambassador in Paris, briefing the Australian Foreign Minister by phone on the recent election of President Sarkozy in France. How will this result affect French foreign policy? Does it call for any changes in Australian policies toward

Following Mr . Nicolas Sarkozy 's election as the 6th President of the French Fifth Republic , it has come to my attention that there have been several mixed sentiments among our people as to whether our country should review current bilateral relations with France in light of this development . Therefore , I called your good office as our country 's ambassador to the French Republic to assure you and the Australian people that continuing our current bilateral relations with France is still in the best interests of Australia

Since the Second World War , France

and Australia have built a strong relationship founded on historic contacts , common principles of democracy and human rights , substantial commercial links , and a genuine interest in each other 's culture . With respect to commercial links trade between our two countries has grown to be quite substantial France is Australia 's 14th largest merchandise trading partner and 11th largest supplier of imports . In 2005 alone , Australia 's merchandise exports to France earned our local business A 1 .1 billion . At the end of 2005 , with French Foreign Direct Investment (FDI ) valued at A 8 .3 billion making France our 7th largest direct investor . Major French investments in Australia are spread throughout various industries such as pharmaceuticals , telecommunications , and agribusiness sectors . French insurer AXA has some 51 stake in Australian National Mutual funds French contractors Vivendi successfully bid for the A 1 .5 billion project to manage South Australian Water while another French company Transroute won part of the contract to construct the A 1 .5 billion Melbourne City link toll-road . There are about 300 French businesses operating in Australia and employing around 80 ,000 of our people . This brings in an annual turnover of A 20 billion (Carlton 2006

Looking at President Sarkozy 's political principles on the economy with respect to foreign relations , he had expressed prior to being elected and in fact throughout most of his political statements these past few years that France should struggle for a more liberalized economy (Siolino 2007 . This is quite to the usual stance of France 's right winged political parties of whom President Sarkozy is affiliated with Despite of his rightist political leanings , President Sarkozy is not a protectionist and is likely to break new ground in global economics (Alvarez-Montalvo 2004 . As France is currently one of Australia 's largest trading partners , our government should take measures to maintain our current good standing relationship with the French market and investors . The Sarkozy government would not shy away from our current economic agreements and would not prevent further French investments from flowing into our country . Therefore we should do the same

Prior to Mr . Sarkozy 's election as president , he had been the Minister of the Interior of France for two terms . His responsibilities in this matter included the management of the major law-enforcement forces as well as bridging relations between the central and local government (Alvarez-Montalvo 2004 . In these regards , many people have criticized him for his conservative policies on...