Visiting Vietnam, France wants to promote pivot to Asia

The French President's visit to Vietnam demonstrates the desire to get closer to Southeast Asia, accelerating the pivot to Asia of this leading European power.

French President Francois Hollande. Photo: AFP.

French President Francois Hollande visited Vietnam inSeptember 5-7after attending the G20 Summit. The visit marked the first time a French President visited Vietnam in 12 years.

According to experts from the French magazine "Foreign Policy", after World War II, building Europe and reaching out to neighboring countries and the African region were priorities in France's foreign policy. That is why during this period, Paris paid little attention to Asia, considering it a distant region where interests were less closely linked to national interests.

However, since the 1990s, Asia has been seen by French leaders as a top strategic challenge to be overcome, with a series of speeches and official documents emphasizing the region's economic potential.

The 2008 White Paper on National Defense and Security gave priority to the Asian region and called on France to increase its engagement with the continent.

French President Francois Hollande, upon taking office, expressed his desire to diversify France's presence in the Asia-Pacific, despite having to compete directly with the US, which is pushing its strategy toward this region to limit China's influence.

"The pivot to Asia is not a movement effect, but because France wants to be present in a region where the future world is being built. Therefore, it is clear that Asia-Pacific will be the center of the 21st century," former French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said at the headquarters of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) in August 2013.

Expert Odon Vallet of Sorbone University said that France having a part of its territory in the Pacific Ocean means that France is also a power in the Asia-Pacific and has interests in the region.

Southeast Asia (an important part of the Asia-Pacific) is a dynamic region with great economic growth, contributing significantly to global growth. Therefore, in recent years, France's perspective has changed a lot, moving closer to this bloc.

However, this trend was initially significantly limited by leading policymakers in Paris's inaccurate assessments of the territorial disputes in the East Sea and their intransigent attitude towards China on this issue.

According to Vallet, although Vietnam and France upgraded their relationship to the level of strategic partnership during Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung's visit to Paris in 2013, the actual relationship between the two countries is still limited compared to the potential and "warm" diplomatic history between the two countries, especially in the context of Vietnam being a country in the Francophone community.

President Hollande's missed visit to Vietnam in early 2015 also slowed down this rapprochement, as some Southeast Asian countries believed that France had not truly supported their stance on sovereignty disputes in the East Sea.

After that event, France's perspective changed significantly. Its leaders realized that to accelerate its pivot to Asia, they needed to get closer to Southeast Asian countries, especially Vietnam and the Philippines.

Paris has been more indirect in its criticism of Beijing. Through official channels, France has called on all parties involved in the conflict to engage in negotiations, as the only solution. But through unofficial channels, France has been more resolute with China and more supportive of other countries involved in the conflict.

Recently at the 2016 Shangri-la Dialogue, French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian proposed that European countries conduct joint maritime patrols in the South China Sea.

Therefore, on this visit to Vietnam, President Hollande can take advantage of the missed opportunity in 2015 to increase France's prestige in Vietnam.

L'express newspaper commented that President Hollande wants to use this visit to continue to strengthen relations with Vietnam, a country with a history close to France, and which is playing an increasingly important role in the Southeast Asian region in particular and Asia in general, thereby strengthening the policy of increasing presence in the continent.

"Accompanying President Hollande to Vietnam this time is a large delegation including more than 50 leaders and managers of leading French economic groups. Through Vietnam, France is showing its growing interest in Southeast Asia in particular and Asia in general," L'express commented.

According to VNE