An “Indo-Pacific Strategy” and a third French voice in the historical singer of non-aligned: Emmanuel Macron will defend this Wednesday, May 28 in Indonesia his position of “balance power” between the United States and China during the second stage of his tour in Southeast Asia.
He arrived in Yakarta on Tuesday night from Vietnam, the French president was received by his counterpart Pabowo suffered before meeting Indonesian investors and students. On Thursday, he will go to Yogyakarta, where he will visit Borobudur’s Buddhist temple.
A “very strategic and friendly” relationship
“I can’t wait to meet my brother again, President Pabowo Sub -anto, a good friend,” said Emmanuel Macron to his plane on Tuesday night, received by the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Priso and Defense Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin.
“The relationship with his country is very strategic and friendly,” added the French president, who said he was “very happy to be in Indonesia, a country that I like.”
Friendship statements despite the sulphurous past of President Pabowo. A former soldier and entrepreneur, Pabowo Sui -Bianto is the son of former Dictator Suharto, who died in 2008, and former commander of the Special Forces. It is involved in multiple abuses in East of Timor, Papua or even during Anti-Sharto events in 1998.
“We really don’t have to get involved in internal politics. We look at the facts: we are in a democracy. He was chosen,” the Elysée replied to BFMTV. Since 2004, he has always participated in the Indonesian demographic process. The question of his past does not arise so much. “
And the Presidency to add: “The President of the Republic has established an extremely close relationship. He has a desire and administration for our country. The President of the French Republic wants to make it the plane.”
Defense and mineral contracts?
Emmanuel Macron hopes to translate his positioning in contracts for the companies of his country, in particular in defense, energy and critical minerals, in a region in search of both partners against US customs taxes by Donald Trump, but also at a distance quite quite the imposing Chinese neighbor.
The Elysée hopes to obtain contracts and agreements, particularly in the fields of defense, energy and critical minerals. Paris intends to strengthen its cooperation in the armaments with President Pabowo Subaianto, former Minister of Defense, while Indonesia has provided in the particular past in Russia for its combat planes. “In 5 years we have become the first defense partner with Indonesia,” said BFMTV’s elysée.
The new managing director of EraMet Paulo Castellari bets on the French delegation in an attempt to obtain from Yakarta an increase in production permit in the largest mine in the nickel world. Energy is also a problem, Indonesia wants to quickly become nuclear to meet the growing demand for electricity.
The question of Gaza in the background?
In the background, another issue for France: try to take the most populous Muslim country in the world in its desire to advance in the “solution of two states” during a UN conference in June about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
Indonesia is one of the three countries of the Southeast Asian Nations Association (ASEAN) so as not to have relations with Israel. However, Emmanuel Macron, in his “determination” of recognizing a state of Palestine, potentially in June, you wait in exchange for obtaining salaries from the Arab-Muslims countries.
“Gaza is a issue of foreign and internal politics,” said Elysée. “We are working on a common expression. It will be the first time that Indonesia has been expressed with a western country in Gaza. A country that does not recognize Israel. The perspective of a conference in New York.”
And to add: “The objective is to try to create a dynamic. Then, we will not have everything today. We are in a country extremely sensitive to the Palesty question. All the steps that one can take as a sign of mutual recognition are a giant step in the current context.”
What about Ukraine in all this?
The question of war in Ukraine will also be mentioned during exchanges. “We are mostly in exchanges with American and European. But the head of state will speak more in Singapore,” he says. In Vietnam, at the beginning of this six -day tour that will end on Friday in Singapore, Emmanuel Macron presented France in “Power of Peace and Balance”, concerned about an international order “based on the law.”
A message addressed both to Beijing, which is becoming increasingly offensive in its territorial claims in southern China, and Donald Trump and its drastic increases in customs duties.
The “method” of the US president, which consists in “creating permanent uncertainty” with “prices that change according to the mornings where we wake up”, “slows investments and economy,” said Emmanuel Macron at the time he met Tuesday in Kuala Lumpur, ASEAN recorded his intention to accelerate his efforts to diversify his networks of customs.
Source: BFM TV
