France is still expected to unveil a long-awaited update to its Indo-Pacific strategy. This should be an opportunity for it to do more in the region.
Its current Indo-Pacific strategy relies on two visions: one is more defence-industry-oriented, focusing mainly on the Western part of this supra-region, and another is geographically and thematically more comprehensive.
But France should also consider a bottom-up approach in the Pacific, focussed on engaging with Pacific islanders.
Even if the word ‘inclusive’ was no longer used in President Emmanuel Macron’s speech in January, the idea is still in the air, as he said ‘there is no confrontation [with China]’. But an updated idea of inclusivity should extend beyond China to not only Pacific island countries but also local actors.
In the Pacific, for now, Paris relies on little-known liaison officers (in Hawaii, Singapore and South Korea) plus officers of the Directorate of Cooperation of Security and Defence, in Indonesia and Fiji. Now France is increasing its presence.
For example, last year, the ambassador to the Pacific moved from mainland France to New Caledonia.
France is also doing more in terms of defence. In 2023 Macron announced the Pacific Academy, which will provide training for regional military and internal-security officials. As security competition increasingly extends to police forces—with Australia and China signing deals with various Pacific island states—France’s contribution is channelled through a Pacific police attache based in Canberra.
France is also engaged in the region’s climate threats, having launched the Kiwa Initiative at the 2017 One Planet Summit in Paris.
Furthermore, two years after Australia’s decision to shift to Britain and the United States as its future submarine partners soured relations with France, Canberra and Paris signed a new roadmap for bilateral cooperation in 2023. The roadmap promotes cooperation in the fields of defence, climate and education, with an emphasis on the South Pacific.
As momentum builds behind an updated French Indo-Pacific strategy, it is time to pay more attention to Pacific island countries. To that end, France should highlight the idea of empathy and shift the focal point away from US-China competition to topics more aligned with the local concerns, particularly those related to human security—protecting rights, health and prosperity.
For example, French and Pacific citizens are facing the same challenges at sea including illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing, rising sea-levels and possible ill-effects of deep-sea mining. France has long experience in maritime domain awareness. This means it can contribute to regional maritime security efforts.
Satellites of France-based Unseenlabs can locate ships using radio-frequency detection, complementing US maritime domain awareness activities in the region. And France was the first to provide assistance after the natural disasters in Tonga in 2022 and in Vanuatu in 2024 through the established France-Australia-New Zealand trilateral aid mechanism.
In January, the French-led military Exercise La Perouse, named after a French naval explorer, kicked off with eight other Indo-Pacific navies. In the spirit of the explorer, who criticised those who ‘write their books by the fireside’, France should consider other avenues to engage with Pacific islanders themselves.
For a start, France should be more attentive to the Pacific young leaders. If not, other countries will not wait to offer them grants and to profit from their burgeoning expertise.
Secondly, in an age of information warfare, contributions to regional media, offering translations and different views, have heightened importance. The Pacific Islands News Association has previously provided a French version of its newsletters. Reviving this could be reconsidered.
Thirdly, local leaders, NGOs and keepers of ancestral knowledge should be closely involved and associated with the process of applied research.
To sustain such dialogues, Paris might soon rely on Noumea’s emerging (geo)political science research community. Similarly, the University of French Polynesia could be organising a third edition of its conference series on Great Powers in the Pacific.
Even at the regional level, Indo-Pacific strategies are not so open or inclusive, despite a new focus on the Global South. While minilateral forums create the impression of a close-knit and liberal diplomatic community, exclusively built around like-minded, great and middle-ranked powers, the time has come to gather more widely. With this aim, there is no need to reinvent the diplomatic wheel when one can, for example, build on the promising Pacific Dialogue on Security in Suva.
Taking inspiration from the long-discussed centrality of the Association of Southeast Asian nations, a think tank supported by regional universities or an annual 1.5 dialogue—such as those in Singapore, Manama, Dakar and Munich, but enriched with more local participants—might offer opportunities for Pacific island states to recentre talks around themselves and set the agenda.
