A street vendor in Dhaka, Bangladesh offers snacks to France's President Emmanuel Macron in September 2023 (Photo: AFP/Ludovic Marin)
Ágnes Zsófia Magyar
05/01/2024 17:03
Seven of France’s thirteen overseas departments, regions and communities are located between the Indian Ocean and the South Pacific. They are home to 1,6 million French citizens – it is therefore not surprising that France is seeking to increase its influence in the region through an increased presence. Accordingly, Emmanuel Macron, last November at APEC stated that the US-China battle is causing collateral damage to the whole world: two elephants are getting more and more nervous so that they can cause a lot of trouble in the long run.
The emerging countries of Asia agree with Macron. Having based their growth since the 1990s on international trade and peaceful market exchanges with the US and China, they fear that the economic and technological struggle between Beijing and Washington is destabilizing them and are terrified of having to choose between them. At the moment, the French president does not officially want to spearhead such a new alliance (because France shares values with the US), but France is a sovereign nation in the Indo-Pacific region, which is the scene of a number of geostrategic developments that have a direct impact on the interests of France and its partners. Therefore, France intends to fully assume its role as a regional power to defend its sovereign interests, ensure the security of its citizens without causing a political rupture and (as its duty as a permanent member of the UN’s Security Council) actively contribute to regional stability and security.
Back in 2017, France adopted the Indo-Pacific Defence Strategy, based on the Strategic Review and earlier (in 2013) the White Paper on National Security and Defence. Instead of advocating a third way, Macron is now offering an “alternative”: rather than seeking to balance the US and China, he is promoting “the sovereignty and independence” of states in the Indo-Pacific region amid geopolitical competition and transnational threats, such as piracy, illegal fishing, organized crime, illegal immigration, jihadist terrorism and climate change.
Not only does Macron keep an eye on France overseas but also on other parts of Asia: at the end of 2022, Macron discussed with the new President of the Philippines, Bongbong Marcos, a possible partnership for the civilian use of nuclear energy. Marcos makes no secret of his desire to build their first nuclear power plant soon to reduce their dependence on carbon. He thanked Macron for the call, which the latter initiated in order to discuss Beijing’s growing aggression in the South China Sea.
In early September, Emmanuel Macron met the Bangladeshi Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, to “consolidate the Pacific strategy” after the G20 meeting in India. The French President praised Bangladesh’s success in working “along democratic principles and the rule of law” and reaffirmed France’s commitment to fight systemic climate change-induced flooding in the country.
The French head of state also invited Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the National Day on 14 July and visited Sri Lanka at the end of his Pacific tour in July.
All of the above mentioned could be a useful networking exercise, especially as France is not yet invited to the BRICS summit because of Russia’s disagreement: Moscow felt that such an invitation would be “inappropriate”, given France’s position on the war in Ukraine and its membership of NATO. How long will BRICS’ resolve last…?
The author is Deputy Head of Brussels Office of the Foundation for a Civic Hungary, the party foundation of Fidesz