Sydney (Australia)).- The French president, Emmanuel Macron, assured this Friday from Papua New Guinea, as part of a tour of the South Pacific, that France’s objective “is not to enter into competition with China and the US”when the two superpowers bid to increase their influence in this region.
“Our goal is not to compete with China or the US, which have different objectives and strategies in the region,” Macron said today at a press conference from Port Moresby together with Papuan Prime Minister James Marape.
“Our strategy in the Indo-Pacific is to offer a path in the region that allows a free, open and peaceful Indo-Pacific, and for this France has two pillars: climate and strategic and military security,” he stressed.
Just before Macron’s arrival, US Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin was in Port Moresby on Thursday, where he announced the deployment of a US Coast Guard in August to this oceanic country, under a peace deal. security signed in May.
Macron defended the autonomy of France to present himself as an alternative to China and the US in the South Pacific, where he reiterated that “we have compatriots who live in the region. We are here,” he emphasized.
The leader recalled that more than 1.5 million of its citizens live in seven overseas territories such as New Caledonia, the first stop on his tour this week, Tahiti or Reunion.
Before the appearance, Macron and Marape took a walk of about two kilometers around the Varirata National Park, and signed a project managed by the French development agency and with European funding called Forest, Climate and Biodiversity.
The fight against climate change and the commitment to renewable energy is one of Macron’s trump cards on his visit to the South Pacific. “Gas is better than coal, which is the big problem for climate change (…) I am not here to give lessons, but to offer help,” Macron pointed out.
Papua New Guinea, an impoverished nation of about 10 million people in the South Pacific where the French hydrocarbons company Total operates, is rich in natural resources and has become a sought-after destination in recent months, amid the struggle between China and the US in the area.
A struggle that started especially since China signed a security pact with the Solomon Islands last year and after Beijing’s still failed claim to sign a multilateral agreement with a dozen South Pacific countries.
Before his arrival in Papua New Guinea, Macron denounced Thursday in Vanuatu that the “new imperialism” in the Pacific undermines the sovereignty of its island states.
The leader of Papua New Guinea, Marape, who defends his neutrality against the courtship of the powers, assured today, for his part: “I do not see competition between countries, I see coexistence, and we do not flee from it.”
The Indo-Pacific is the scene of growing competition between Washington and Beijing, as well as territorial disputes in the South China Sea and tensions in Taiwan, which China considers a rebel province and does not rule out invading.
The French strategy in the Indo-Pacific regained momentum after Australia signed the AUKUS security pact with the US and the United Kingdom in 2021 to strengthen its presence in this region, which includes the acquisition and development of nuclear submarines by the oceanic country , suspending the purchase of diesel propulsion devices manufactured by the French conglomerate Naval Group.
Macron arrived in New Caledonia on Monday and will travel to Sri Lanka on Friday night, from where he will end his tour.
