France seeks to be third power in Indo-P • Table.Briefings

France wants to establish itself as an alternative to the United States and China from the coasts of Madagascar to French Polynesia. The two great powers are also ensnaring Papua New Guinea, where Emmanuel Macron assured he would act as a balancing force and not get involved in power games. Can France fulfill its security ambitions?

In the end, it was mainly words that Emmanuel Macron used to underpin France’s security ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. At the final conference with Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, Macron stressed they did not want to get into „power games,“ saying, „Our goal is not to compete with China or the United States.“ A day earlier, in Vanuatu, he had warned against „new imperialism“ in the Pacific. On other occasions, Macron and his Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, had stressed that France sees itself as a balancing force in the Indo-Pacific.

France seeks to be third power in Indo-Pacific

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