Emmanuel Macron arrived this Sunday, May 25 at the night in Hanoi, Vietnam, to start a tour in Southeast Asia that will take it, until Friday, in Indonesia and then in Singapore, noted AFP journalists.
The French president, accompanied by his wife Brigitte Macron, will be received on Monday by his homologous Vietnamese Luong Cuong and the Secretary General of the Communist Party for Lam, for this first of the three state visits in a little less than a week. On Tuesday, he will meet with players in the energy sector, a key topic of his visit, and exchange with Vietnamese students.
Defend your “IndoPacific Strategy”
After going to India and China several times, but also in countries of the Pacific Ocean such as Vanuatu or Papua New Guinea, and recently in the Indian Ocean, he intends to take advantage of this new trip to defend his “Indo -Pacific Strategy.”
Established in 2018, it consists of proposing a third to the countries of the region, taken in tweezers in the confrontation between the United States and China, and finds according to Paris all its relevance from the return of Donald Trump to the White House with its commercial war threats.
In Vietnam, where Emmanuel Macron goes for the first time, this position of “power of power” can find an echo: the country itself is careful to find a certain balance in its relations with China and the United States, to maximize its commercial interests, in line with its “bamboo diplomacy.”
The Elysée expects to “strengthen cooperation in strategic sectors such as energy, transport and defense.” Several chiefs of French companies support the president in all or part of his tour, including those of EDF, Dassault Aviation, Airbus Aviation, Naval Group, EraMet or CMA GCM.
A tribute to the memory of veterans
The old colonial links make the Franco-Vietnamese relations complex. The Head of State will pay tribute to the memory of the War of Indochina who fought for independence on Monday morning that fought for independence.
He will also be received on Monday by the general secretary of the Vietnamese Communist Party, considered the most powerful leader in the country, whom he himself welcomed in Paris in October. The two men will have lunch in the temple of literature, an emblematic place of the Vietnamese culture.
On Tuesday night, the French president will fly to Indonesia, and end his tour on Friday in Singapore, where he will pronounce the opening speech of the Shangri-la dialogue, the largest forum on security and defense in Asia.
Source: BFM TV
