The seminar organized by France and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean), bringing together researchers and diplomats in a luxury hotel near Bali, with swimming pool and sea view, Wednesday December 6 and Thursday December 7 , had to remain discreet and encourage “frank discussions” on security issues in the region. Problem: representatives of the Burmese junta were invited, according to documents obtained by The worldwhich caused the amazement of opponents of the military dictatorship.
“It is worrying to see that France is offering legitimacy and support to the junta by allowing it to send representatives to this seminar,” regrets Yadanar Maung, spokesperson for the NGO Justice for Myanmar (official name of Burma, given by the military in 1989). Since the coup d’état of 1er February 2021 and the overthrow of the elected government of Aung San Suu Kyi, the European Union (EU), France in the lead, and the United States seek on the contrary to isolate the military regime, and have sanctioned around a hundred of its members, including the putschist general Min Aung Hlaing.
Without breaking its diplomatic relations with Burma, France itself no longer has an ambassador in Naypyidaw, since the departure of Christian Lechervy in August 2023, but a charge d’affaires.
Nonetheless, Emmanuel Macron is seeking to get closer to ASEAN, in order to assert France’s presence in the Indo-Pacific. Paris therefore agreed to support the seminar supposed to contribute to strengthening regional security, despite growing tensions between China and the United States – representatives of both powers were invited. The French ambassador to Indonesia and to ASEAN, Fabien Penone, as well as his colleague in charge of the Indo-Pacific, Marc Abensour, participated in the conference.
Bloody repression
In a letter dated October 20 including The world obtained a copy, the deputy secretary general of Asean specifies that the seminar, organized with the think tank Center for Strategic and International Studies, was ” finance “ by the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The letter invited each ASEAN member to send four representatives, “middle-ranking civil servants”, including two from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and two from the Ministry of Defense. Economy class plane tickets and three nights of hotel accommodation were covered.
A few weeks later, in a letter dated November 17, the Burmese Ministry of Foreign Affairs asked its defense colleagues to register with ASEAN, sending them the presentation note written by the French embassy in Indonesia. The seminar, which began with a presentation of French strategy in the Indo-Pacific, addressed the impact of great power rivalry on the stability of the region, particularly in the China Sea, but also of the war in Ukraine in matters of food safety.
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