{"id":66555,"date":"2021-08-20T06:00:55","date_gmt":"2021-08-19T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?p=66555"},"modified":"2021-08-19T16:35:43","modified_gmt":"2021-08-19T06:35:43","slug":"macrons-indo-pacific-vision-woe-betide-the-small-and-isolated","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macrons-indo-pacific-vision-woe-betide-the-small-and-isolated\/","title":{"rendered":"Macron\u2019s Indo-Pacific vision: \u2018Woe betide the small and isolated\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/figure>\n

In a\u00a0speech on 28 July<\/a>\u00a0during a visit to French Polynesia, French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the benefits of French protection in the region, within the framework of France\u2019s Indo-Pacific strategy and with New Caledonia\u2019s impending independence vote in mind. His protection message was directed to leaders of France\u2019s territories in the Pacific and beyond, and indeed to Pacific island leaders generally. Macron invoked France\u2019s nuclear-deterrence capability (based on testing conducted for decades in the Pacific over regional opprobrium) as a plus for France and French Polynesia, and implicitly for the wider region.<\/p>\n

France\u00a0bases its Indo-Pacific strategy<\/a>\u00a0on its sovereign presence in the two oceans through its territories, so the timing and location of Macron\u2019s presentation are not surprising. His visit came just months before France\u2019s pre-eminent Pacific possession votes on independence, on 12 December 2021. New Caledonia\u2019s final vote in a three-vote process will be decisive. The previous two referendums, while favouring staying French, saw a\u00a0steady, indigenous-based, increase in support for independence<\/a>\u00a0from 43.3% in 2018 to 47.6% in 2020.<\/p>\n

Macron had chosen to\u00a0announce France\u2019s Indo-Pacific strategy<\/a>\u00a0when he visited Noumea to open the referendum process in May 2018, and stressed the importance of a French New Caledonia within that strategy. His Papeete speech followed the public release of\u00a0a French paper<\/a>\u00a0outlining the consequences of \u2018yes\u2019 and \u2018no\u2019 votes for New Caledonia\u2019s future and proposing extensive negotiation with France regardless of the referendum outcome. Independence parties, while accepting some partnership with France in the event of independence, have been non-committal on the detail.<\/p>\n

In Papeete, Macron sharpened his message to New Caledonians. He addressed them early in his remarks. Stressing that the choice is for them to make, he repeated his 2018 comment that \u2018France would be less beautiful without New Caledonia\u2019. By the end of his speech, he left little doubt that a vote for independence risked forgoing the power and protection that France offered. As such, it was a message to New Caledonia and French Polynesia, where there\u2019s also an independence movement.<\/p>\n

Macron referred to slow implementation of his own pledges to resolve claims for compensation by victims suffering health effects from France\u2019s nuclear testing in the Hao and Mururoa atolls. Reaffirming his intention to have more cases brought to justice, he referred at length to this recent history, which is sensitive and painful not just for French Polynesians but broadly in the region. It was Pacific Islands Forum countries that led an ultimately successful campaign of international condemnation of French nuclear testing from the 1960s. France ceased testing in 1996.<\/p>\n

Macron acknowledged that France had chosen to carry out its nuclear testing in French Polynesia (after testing sites in Algeria were lost in 1962 following a long independence war) because the sites, \u2018lost in the middle of the Pacific\u2019, meant fewer consequences than if they had been conducted in metropolitan France. Denying that scientists and military personnel had lied (\u2018the military had bathed in the same water\u2019), he acknowledged the imperfect assessment of risks, based on imperfect knowledge. He pledged to release all files\u2014except those that \u2018could put our deterrence at risk\u2019.<\/p>\n

Macron warned of the perils of small Pacific islands losing the protection that a nuclear power like France could offer, in a region where \u2018confrontation between two major world powers was playing out\u2019 and where states were subject to wars and pressure for influence that would grow. To be French in this context was an opportunity, he noted, because France had an Indo-Pacific strategy, one of freedom and sustainable, \u2018blue\u2019 economic and digital development, preserving biodiversity and the sovereignty of everyone in the Pacific. France had allies in this strategy and had built unique partnerships with each: Australia (an \u2018essential partner\u2019), New Zealand, India and Japan.<\/p>\n

But, Macron said, \u2018I say very clearly, in the time to come, woe betide the small, woe betide the isolated, woe betide those who will undergo influence and attacks from hegemonic powers who will come to seek their fish, their technology, their economic resources. I say clearly: Here is Polynesia. But here, it is France. And you will be protected.\u2019<\/p>\n

He noted what was happening in the region, \u2018in Vanuatu\u2019 and elsewhere, and said that in the face of \u2018siren voices\u2019 promising exotic projects and investment, \u2018Let us attach ourselves to the mast, and hold on.\u2019 France would be there to protect French Polynesia and its sovereignty.<\/p>\n

Whereas Pacific countries now see France as a constructive regional partner, they have also fully supported self-determination in France\u2019s Pacific territories. None has so far commented on the speech. As for Australia, while it sees France as\u00a0a valued strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific,<\/a>\u00a0it has\u00a0not taken a position<\/a>\u00a0on the outcome of New Caledonia\u2019s referendum process and will respect the result of the vote.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a\u00a0speech on 28 July\u00a0during a visit to French Polynesia, French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the benefits of French protection in the region, within the framework of France\u2019s Indo-Pacific strategy and with New Caledonia\u2019s impending …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":258,"featured_media":66559,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1905,291,958,56],"class_list":["post-66555","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-emmanuel-macron","tag-france","tag-independence","tag-indo-pacific"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMacron\u2019s Indo-Pacific vision: \u2018Woe betide the small and isolated\u2019 | The Strategist<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macrons-indo-pacific-vision-woe-betide-the-small-and-isolated\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Macron\u2019s Indo-Pacific vision: \u2018Woe betide the small and isolated\u2019 | The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"In a\u00a0speech on 28 July\u00a0during a visit to French Polynesia, French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the benefits of French protection in the region, within the framework of France\u2019s Indo-Pacific strategy and with New Caledonia\u2019s impending ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macrons-indo-pacific-vision-woe-betide-the-small-and-isolated\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"The Strategist\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/ASPI.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-08-19T20:00:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-08-19T06:35:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234247619.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"683\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Denise Fisher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@ASPI_org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Denise Fisher\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/\",\"name\":\"The Strategist\",\"description\":\"ASPI's analysis and commentary site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\"},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-AU\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/macrons-indo-pacific-vision-woe-betide-the-small-and-isolated\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234247619.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.aspistrategist.ru\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/GettyImages-1234247619.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":683,\"caption\":\"TOPSHOT - French President Emmanuel Macron (C) greets local residents as he visits the Fare Natura ecomuseum in Mo'orea island, French Polynesia on July 27, 2021. - During his four-day visit, Macron, who is the first head of state to visit the remote archipelago in French Polynesia, plans to address the legacy of nuclear testing from 1966 to 1996 as France developed atomic weapons, as well as discuss the South Pacific territory's strategic role and the existential risk of rising seas posed by global warming. 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