French President Emmanuel Macron began a tour of three Southeast Asian countries on Sunday, May 25, in Vietnam. He is set to travel to Indonesia on Wednesday before heading to Singapore, where he will deliver the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue summit on Friday. This annual forum brings together top defense and security officials from around the world. For Paris, the goal at the conference is to defend France’s positions on the wars in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as to promote the country’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific – a vast region in which the US-China rivalry plays out, with Southeast Asia as its epicenter.
The Elysée has described this trip as an opportunity for France and Europe to assert themselves as “reliable” partners, who are “respectful” of the sovereignty of countries in the region, which have become “caught between US trade tensions” and “an increasingly assertive China.” The visit was also about supporting concrete projects in the energy, transport, defense, and space sectors – in other words, offering French solutions to economies that are currently undergoing rapid transformations: Vietnam, a growth powerhouse with a population of 100 million people; and Indonesia, a demographic giant seeking to renew its momentum. Both countries have been eligible for Western (notably French) funding under the Just Energy Transition Partnerships, frameworks launched in 2021 to support emerging countries’ energy transitions.
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