How France will move in the Indo-Pacific

31 July 20213 years ago babelfish

France is the only EU power that is actively present in the Indo-Pacific region, even with pre-positioned permanent military resources. The point of Giuseppe Gagliano

In a previous article, the increasingly assertive role of France in the Indo-Pacific was highlighted.

The document fired a few days ago by the French government officially seals the growing role that France will have to play in the Indo-Pacific. The document starts from an indisputable premise on a geopolitical level: the Indo-Pacific is an area that is witnessing profound strategic changes. China's power is on the rise, and its territorial claims are expressed with ever greater force. Competition between China and the United States is on the rise, as are tensions on the Sino-Indian border and on the Korean peninsula.

All these elements are changing the regional balance of power and making strategic calculations more complex. Added to this are persistent transnational threats, such as piracy, terrorism, trafficking (drugs, precious stones and wood, protected species, etc.) and unresolved proliferation crises, as well as the disastrous effects of climate change, which are already being felt in terms of safety. All these changes have a direct impact on the entire region, including the French territories.

In this area where seven of the world's ten largest defense budgets are located, growing strategic and military imbalances pose a threat with global consequences and could as such have a direct impact on Europe: 30% of trade between Asia and Europe passes through the South China Sea. Most states in the Indo-Pacific region have tried to invest.

Let us now turn to the purely economic aspect of the Indo-Pacific, an absolutely crucial aspect for France.

The Indo-Pacific is characterized by its maritime dimension. Maritime transit represents 90% of global trade flows and the oceans are crucial strategic spaces for guaranteeing the supply of goods and energy. Securing shipping routes is therefore an absolute priority.

In two decades, the Indo-Pacific region has become the new engine of the global economy's growth. The Indo-Pacific comprises six G20 members and the region generates nearly 40% of global wealth. According to the IMF, the Indo-Pacific could account for over 50% of world GDP in 2040 and its markets could account for 40% of global consumption.

As regards relations between France and the Indo-Pacific from an economic point of view, the document is exemplary in its clarity: in 2019, about 18% of French imports came from the Indo-Pacific region (about 8.7% excluding China) and about 14% of French exports went to that region (10% excluding China). Trade with the Indo-Pacific accounts for more than a third of French trade in goods outside the EU and is dynamic. It has grown 49% in 10 years (compared to 27% on average on a global basis).

France's direct investments in the Indo-Pacific accounted for around 8% of its global investments in 2019 (6% excluding China), amounting to 113 billion euros. The amount was multiplied by 1.7 between 2010 and 2019, compared to 1.5 globally, excluding the EU. In terms of development in the Indo-Pacific, excluding China, the stock of French foreign direct investment (19 billion euros) grew more rapidly over the same period. In 2019, the Indo-Pacific region accounted for 3.8% of investment stocks in France.

Now these numbers, certainly relevant, are the consequence of the French presence at the historical level and more precisely at the colonial level that France – unlike Italy – knows how to capitalize (we allude to Libya, Tunisia and Albania).

In fact, France is the only EU country that has territories in the Indo-Pacific region: the departments of La Réunion and Mayotte, the communities of New Caledonia and French Polynesia, the territory of Wallis and Futuna and the Southern and Antarctic Lands French. All these territories represent a population of 1.65 million (more than one million for the two departments in the Indian Ocean). This presence in the two oceans gives France the second largest Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in the world (10.2 million km2), with about two thirds of the French EEZ located in the Pacific, mainly around French Polynesia. France is the only EU power that is actively present in the region, even with pre-positioned permanent military resources. The protection of French citizens and sovereign territory, and in particular of its EEZs, is one of the main missions of the French security and defense strategy in the Indo-Pacific.

Hence the importance and role that the armed forces must play in protecting the interests of France.

The armed forces of the southern Indian Ocean region provide a platform for projection of forces in this region, subject to strategic competition, where allies and partners have limited capacity for action. In the South Pacific, the Armed Forces of New Caledonia (Forces Armées de la Nouvelle ‐ Calédonie – FANC) and the Armed Forces of French Polynesia (Forces Armées en Polynésie Française – FAPF) allow France to ensure the security of its territories, its exclusive economic zone (EEZ) and its sovereign airspace.

This protection and monitoring capacity extends, for their permanent area of responsibility, to the territorial limits of Melanesia and Polynesia. This presence helps to carry out regional missions, outside of sovereign areas, in close collaboration with Australia and New Zealand, and for the benefit of island states.

This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/come-si-muovera-la-francia-nellindo-pacifico/ on Sat, 31 Jul 2021 08:39:51 +0000.