After New Caledonia, the Head of State is this Thursday, July 27 in Vanuatu, the first visit of a French president since the island became independent. The stated objective of this visit: to counter the influences of the United States and China in the region and to show that France is an Indo-Pacific power. In a speech to the country’s president, Emmanuel Macron justified France’s Indo-Pacific strategy in the face of “new imperialisms”.
Emmanuel Macron has positioned himself in support of the independence and autonomy of the Pacific States. And the words are strong: “The Indo-Pacific in particular, and perhaps Oceania even more within it, has a sovereignty and an independence that is being challenged by the contemporary world. First, the predation of the great powers. »
A strategy around two axes, the defense and the fight against global warming, and a compass: “Our Indo-Pacific strategy consists first and foremost in defending, through its partnerships, the independence and sovereignty of all States in the region that are willing to work with us. »
A stopover in Sri Lanka added: impose a little more France in the region
The only European country present in the region, the Head of State has constantly recalled the 1.5 million French nationals and the 8,000 soldiers present in the Indo-Pacific. The Vanuatu President and Emmanuel Macron launched Ifira’s appeal for immediate action to fight against global warming, a symbol of the environmental diplomacy that the French President wants to strengthen in the region, and repeatedly hammering that “No one should have to choose between the fight against poverty and the fight against global warming. Because many countries like yours have both battles to fight. »
After Vanuatu, the Head of State will stop in Papua New Guinea, again to strengthen bilateral relations and impose France a little more in the region. A final stopover, in Sri Lanka, has been added to the presidential agenda, a country torn between two rival powers: China and India. The Head of State will meet with President Ranil Wickremesinghe on the occasion of “this historic visit, the first by a French president to Sri Lanka”, argued the Elysée. The island, off the coast of India, nine times smaller than France and populated by some 22 million inhabitants, has been going through a deep economic and political crisis for more than a year. President Wickremesinghe took power there a year ago, after the flight of his predecessor, pushed out by monster demonstrations against the backdrop of the country’s worst economic crisis since its independence in 1948, recalls AFP.
This article is originally published on rfi.fr
