Emmanuel Macron in Asia: strategic visits to Vietnam, Singapore and Indonesia, three countries in six days

Emmanuel Macron is expected Sunday evening in Hanoi, the capital of Vietnam, a country with an often painful French colonial past. He will meet with leaders on Monday and with stakeholders in the energy sector on Tuesday, another key theme of the tour. France hopes to showcase its expertise in civil nuclear power in both Vietnam and Indonesia, which is seeking to convert to this energy source, even though other countries, including Russia, are in the running.

In Jakarta, Indonesia, he will also meet on Wednesday with the Secretary-General of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN), Kao Kim Hourn. This will provide an opportunity to defend France's position as a "balancing power," which can be viewed favorably in the region. France's desire "to engage resolutely in Indo-Pacific geopolitics offers Vietnam a useful counterweight to China's growing influence," believes Nguyen Khac Giang, a researcher at the ISEAS-Yusof Ishak Institute in Singapore.

Fair trade and competition

Paris and Jakarta share a common "concern" about the "current tensions due to the rivalry between major powers," agrees Lina Alexandra of the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the Indonesian capital. "We defend the idea of ​​international trade rules; we do not want a jungle where the law of the strongest prevails," will be the essence of the French president's message to his Southeast Asian partners, according to one of his advisors.

To better target an America that is exerting "extremely strong pressure" via Donald Trump's trade tariffs, and Chinese authorities increasingly aggressive in both commercial and territorial disputes, particularly in the South China Sea, the French presidency added. Emmanuel Macron also spoke before his departure with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, who himself has just completed a regional tour, passing through Hanoi, and with whom he pleaded for "fair conditions of competition."

Finally, in Singapore on Friday, the head of state will deliver the opening address at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia's largest security and defense forum. He intends to emphasize that "the war waged by Russia in Ukraine is a conflict with global consequences," "including for Southeast Asia," according to the Élysée Palace, since it "is a challenge to sovereignty" and that Moscow is "destabilizing Asia" by "having North Korean soldiers fight Ukrainians on European soil and by supporting North Korea's ballistic and nuclear programs."