Cherbourg. Christopher Pyne has invoked Donald Trump in urging Australia not to be "strategic bludgers" during a shambolic media event in France that was designed to showcase Australia's $50 billion submarine contract with shipbuilder DCNS.

And in a bizarre exchange with journalists, DCNS chief executive Herve Guillou said he didn't know whether he was denying his company had claimed a mass leak of top-secret information was "economic warfare".

Speaking to workers at the shipyards in Cherbourg, France, Defence Industry Minister Mr Pyne said Australia needed to increase defence spending and double its submarine capability so it could project force in the region and uphold Australia's "value-based" foreign policy.

"We are a wealthy country and as a consequence we have a responsibility to do our part to, as Donald Trump says, not be strategic bludgers but actually lift our percentage of spending to 2 per cent, which we'll do by 2020/21," Mr Pyne said.