PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron will journey to Southeast Asia to pitch France and Europe as dependable companions with “no strings connected” because the US and China use extra aggressive ways to gain influence in the region, officers mentioned.
Macron is ready to reach in Hanoi on Sunday (Might 25), the primary journey to Vietnam by a French president in almost a decade, transfer on to Indonesia and end up in Singapore, the place he’ll communicate on the annual Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s prime defence convention.
Macron will current France and Europe as defenders of worldwide cooperation and rules-based commerce, at a time when different world powers such because the US beneath President Donald Trump and China use extra “coercive” or “predatory” strategies.
“So far as we’re involved, we defend the concept of guidelines for worldwide commerce, we do not advocate for the regulation of the jungle, the place it is about survival of the fittest,” a French presidential adviser mentioned on Wednesday.
Export-reliant Vietnam was caught off guard by the threat of high tariffs from the US, whereas France is eager to diversify its provide sources and markets to rely much less on China. Dozens of offers had been being ready and might be signed throughout the three state visits, the Elysee advised Reuters earlier.
