French President Emmanuel Macron visited Sydney this week to discuss with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull pathways to regional and bilateral cooperation on a suite of pressing policy issues, including trade, climate change, and security. Top on the agenda were preparations for the formal launch of negotiations for an EU-Australia Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is currently pending until the EU completes its domestic procedures. (See Bridges Weekly, 25 January 2018 ) “A country at the end of the world and yet so close to us. [Malcom Turnbull], thank you for your welcome in Australia and work in this 21 st century world which no longer lets itself be impressed by distance but builds the future with all those who share values,” Macron said on Twitter on Tuesday 1 May, at the same time outlining an ambition to make France one of Australia’s primary partners over the next ten years. “We have a common history and a future to write with the entire Indo-Pacific region, where the world's balances are largely defined today,” Macron added, highlighting the region’s increasing economic gravitational pull. Australia is involved in mega-regional trade agreements in the Asia-Pacific, as a signatory to the Comprehensive and Progressive...