APEC, an important event for the Asia-Pacific region and for France

First modification: 11/17/2022 – 10:44

The rulers of the Pacific Rim are arriving in Bangkok, Thailand, for a summit on economic recovery after the pandemic and the economic turbulence caused by the war in Ukraine. At the meeting of the 21-member Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum, there will also be French President Emmanuel Macron and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohamed bin Salman.

China and the United States

The summit follows a G20 meeting in Indonesia that ended up dominated by fears that a deadly missile strike in Poland was the start of an escalation in Russia’s war against Ukraine.

Chinese President Xi Jinping is scheduled to arrive in Bangkok later on Thursday, days after a meeting with US President Joe Biden. The two rulers have tried to tone down their rivalry, declaring there is no need for a new Cold War and that they want to prevent their differences from sparking conflict.

The easing of tensions will be welcomed by APEC members, increasingly alarmed by the prospect of having to take sides between the world’s two largest economies. The two countries disagreed over the future of Taiwan, a regional hotbed of conflict, but found common ground on Ukraine, stressing that the use or threat to use nuclear weapons is unacceptable.

France, a power in the region according to Macron

For his part, French President Emmanuel Macron arrived in Thailand on Wednesday night seeking to relaunch France’s strategic ambitions in the Asia-Pacific region, following Australia’s humiliating cancellation of a contract for the sale of submarines in 2021. The French head of state wants to recognize the growing importance of a region that represents 60% of the world’s population and economy, an important center of technological innovation and a great resource of biodiversity.

It is the first time that a European country is invited to the APEC forum, and Macron wants to see it as a recognition of the Indo-Pacific strategy that he began in 2018: “The logic of this Indo-Pacific strategy that we carry out, which is to Once diplomatic, military, economic and climatic, it is a logic of balance. And in this highly disputed region, the scene of a confrontation between the two main world powers, it is the idea of ​​managing balances without confrontation,” he said.

A third way, therefore, that is neither pro-Chinese nor pro-American and that would allow trade to develop without a hegemonic model prevailing. According to Macron, France, thanks to its overseas territories, is also a power in the region: “We have a strong military presence, more than 8,000 of our soldiers are deployed in this area, we have more and more operations, especially maritime, in the region, and we also have military associations that we want to strengthen,” he stressed.

The APEC summit ends an intense fortnight of diplomacy in Asia, following last week’s G20 and ASEAN summits in Cambodia.