China joined Russia and Iran in conducting manouvers in January
Posted on 03/06/2022 8:00:04 PM PST by SunkenCiv
France will be rolling out the red carpet in Paris for a one-day Indo-Pacific forum on Tuesday where foreign ministers from EU member states will meet foreign ministers from across the Indian and Pacific Ocean regions.
It's the first major event since the EU released its Indo-Pacific strategy last year, and the agenda is set to include security and defense topics, digital and connectivity issues and global challenges such as climate change.
"I think the EU as a whole now recognizes that the Indo-Pacific is important and that we collectively have strong interests in that region," Christophe Penot, French ambassador to the Indo-Pacific, told DW.
"Whether it's security challenges, protection of commercial shipping lanes, trade, climate change or protection of biodiversity and oceans — these are major issues for us. What happens in the Indo-Pacific clearly has a strong influence on our future, our prosperity and our security," Penot said.India, a pivotal partnerFrance has made the Indo-Pacific one of the priorities of its current six-month EU presidency. The country is the biggest and most active European player in the region with its overseas territories, military personnel and around 1.5 million French citizens living there.
Ever since Australia, another major Indo-Pacific actor, pulled the plug on a multibillion-dollar submarine deal with France last September and entered a new security alliance with the US and the UK, Paris has been ramping up other geopolitical partnerships in the region.
(Excerpt) Read more at dw.com ...
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“France–India relations have traditionally been close and friendly and both countries have a ‘ special relationship ‘ with each other, so much so that by August 2019, France has been called ‘India’s new best friend’ by a researcher of the Hudson Institute. Both nations have a centuries-old history of trade relations.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/France%E2%80%93India_relations
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