France will strengthen and modernize its military capabilities deployed in Asia-Pacific despite the crisis in Ukraine, the Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu said in Singapore on Saturday.
“There are fears among our partners who wonder if the crisis in Ukraine could divert us from the Indo-Pacific, could lead to the French Republic going back on its commitments in the Indo-Pacific, it is not so”, the minister said when asked in front of the audience at the Asia-Pacific defense and security forum Shangri-La Dialogue.
Two additional ocean patrol boats by 2025
Next year “France will continue to strengthen and modernize our capabilities with the permanent deployment, by 2025, of six new ocean patrol boats in the Indo-Pacific, including two in the Pacific this year, one based in New Caledonia , the other in Polynesia” for “missions of surveillance and sovereignty”, he detailed in a speech.
In addition to the modernized capacities, since the four patrol boats currently present will be replaced by new models, France will therefore have two more patrol boats in the region by 2025.
“Similarly, the five [avions de reconnaissance] Pacific Falcon will be replaced by five new, more modern models. »
This year a sovereignty mission in the Pacific, “Pégase 22”, is also planned with the combined deployment of Rafale and A400 M military transport aircraft.
France would like to join the ADMM+ defense organization
French forces will continue to participate in multiple multilateral exercises, organizing some in order to maintain “a significant presence in the region to show France’s attachment to the stability of the Asia-Pacific region”, he said. he noted.
French strategy in the region “is not directed against any state” but supports multilateral defense arrangements.
This is how France would like to join the ADMM+ defense organization, which brings together the countries of the Association of Southeast Asian Countries (ASEAN) and eight main powers in the region, including China and the States United, recalled the Minister.
France saw its strategy to assert itself in the Asia-Pacific region shaken last year by Australia’s termination of a mega-contract to purchase French submarines and the announcement of a strategic alliance. , Aukus, between this country, the United States and the United Kingdom in the face of growing tensions with China.
The announcement of a significant compensation agreement between Canberra and the French submarine builder Naval Group on Saturday should allow a revival of cooperation with Australia.