This handout photograph taken on July 28, 2023 and released by the Sri Lanka President’s Office shows Sri Lankan President Ranil Wickremesinghe (R) and France’s President Emmanuel Macron embracing prior to their meeting at the airport in Colombo, after Macron stopped in Sri Lanka for a short visit following his South Pacific tour. (AFP)
The first-ever visit by a French President to Sri Lanka on July 28 signalled France’s determination to play an independent role in the Indo-Pacific region
The two leaders did discuss debt restructuring, which is Sri Lanka’s main concern now. But they also discussed France’s main concern, namely, the Indo-Pacific situation and Sri Lanka’s role in it
France’s relations with Sri Lanka assumed salience long afterwards in 2009, during the final stages of the war against the LTTE. In April 2009, its Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his UK counterpart, David Miliband, visited Sri Lanka to bring about a ceasefire in the interest of the trapped Tamil civilians. The mission failed
History was made on Friday July 28, when, for the first time, a French President visited Sri Lanka. But the sudden, hurriedly-arranged and brief meeting between President Emmanuel Macron and his Sri Lankan counterpart, Ranil Wickremesinghe, had more than just a bit of history to it.
It had great geopolitical significance.
The two leaders did discuss debt restructuring, which is Sri Lanka’s main concern now. But they also discussed France’s main concern, namely, the Indo-Pacific situation and Sri Lanka’s role in it.
This was evident in Macron’s tweet at the end of the meeting which said: “Sri Lanka and France are two Indian Ocean nations that share the same goal: an open, inclusive and prosperous Indo-Pacific. In Colombo we confirmed it: strengthened by 75 years of diplomatic relations, we can open a new era of our partnership.”
The message was clear - France is keen on expanding its ties with Sri Lanka leaving behind a long past of relative inactivity.
In the Colonial era, like other European powers, France was interested in Ceylon. But the reason was strategic. Napoleon is supposed to have said: “He who controls Trincomalee controls the Indian Ocean.” France had actually captured Trincomalee. But it had to forget about both Trincomalee and Ceylon after its defeat in the Battle of Trincomalee at the hands of the British navy on September 3, 1782.
France’s relations with Sri Lanka assumed salience long afterwards in 2009, during the final stages of the war against the LTTE. In April 2009, its Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner and his UK counterpart, David Miliband, visited Sri Lanka to bring about a ceasefire in the interest of the trapped Tamil civilians. The mission failed. But France has been criticising the human rights situation in Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC). It also opened its doors to Tamil refugees from the war zone.
However, given the challenge it is now facing from China and the Anglo-Saxon powers in Europe and the Indo-Pacific region, France, under President Macron, has woken up to Sri Lanka’s geopolitical importance.
Macron disapproves of the confrontationist policy of the US vis-à-vis Russia and China. The launching of AUKUS, comprising US, UK and Australia, behind France’s back, and Australia’s cancelling a submarine deal with France in favour of a deal with the US, had soured its relationship with the Anglo-Saxon powers.
France could not be ignored in the Indo-Pacific region as it has a huge stake in the Indo-Pacific. 93% of its Exclusive Economic Zone being in the Pacific and the Indian oceans due to its sovereignty over New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Futuna in the Pacific and over Réunion in the Indian Ocean. Some 150,000 French nationals live in the region’s countries. Over 7,000 French subsidiaries and 8,300 French service members are present in the region.
It is therefore not surprising that prior to coming to Sri Lanka, Macron visited New Caledonia and Papua New Guinea. And like the visit to Sri Lanka, those visits were also described as “historic” because no other French President had visited these islands before.
In their geopolitical competition with China, New Delhi, Washington and Tokyo are engaged in pulling Sri Lanka into their orbit. India is seeing success in its efforts to make its economic relations with Sri Lanka “transformational”. The US has stepped up its diplomacy in the island, though it is not clear as to what exactly Washington wants from Sri Lanka. Earlier, the US had unsuccessfully tried to get Sri Lanka to sign the Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) with the Department of Defence.
China had receded into the background after it refused to take a haircut on loan repayment, stalling agreement among all creditors. China is Sri Lanka’s single largest bilateral creditor. But with India stealing a march over it in terms of economic aid, Beijing now is trying to enter the arena, albeit without an acceptable debt relief program. It sent Yuan Jiajun, a member of the Communist Party Central Committee’s Political Bureau, to meet President Wickremesinghe on July 22.
Not to be outdone the Japanese Foreign Minister Hayashi Yoshima was in Colombo on July 28 and 29 as the head of a 21-member top level delegation. But Japan’s thrust is economic rather more than strategic, though it also has a strong geopolitical interest given its sharp contradictions with China in the Indo-Pacific region. Japan is keen to resume its traditional role as a top development partner and prevent Sri Lanka from falling prey to Beijing’s allegedly opaque loan offers.
In this multi-national context, Macron’s France also wants to extend its sway over Sri Lanka as part of its efforts to carve out an independent role for itself in the Indo-Pacific region. Macron is keen that France should not be a mere camp follower of the Anglo-Saxon powers headed by the US.
For sure, Macron is in agreement with the US-led alliance’s assessment of the intentions of Russia and China, but he wants France to have a policy that is “balancing” and “mediatory” and not purely “confrontationist”.
He visited Beijing in April on his own initiative and had spoken against Western adventurism over Taiwan. A proponent of a “stable multipolar order”, Macron has said that France’s goal is to act as an “inclusive and a stabilizing mediating power.”
Macron envisages a “multilateral” approach to solving the world’s problems, in contrast to the “domination” model promoted by the US and China. He is keen on roping in regional organizations.
In April, Macron and Ursula von der Leyen, the head of the European Commission, went to Beijing to persuade Xi Jinping to use his clout with President Putin to end the war in Ukraine. But in contrast to the US, the duo also wanted economic ties with Beijing. Accompanying him on that trip was a group of 50 top French businessmen, New York Times said.
The pushy French leader is undeterred by barbs from the Anglo-Saxon countries that see him as a “divider”. Macron’s attempt to dissuade Russian President Putin from going on with the war in Ukraine was described as naïve.
Macron’s approach is motived by geo-economics and not just geopolitics. He is committed to promoting common goods like climate change, the environment and biodiversity, healthcare, education, digital technology, and high-quality infrastructure, in a region undergoing rapid demographic, social and urban transition. For this, he is seeking the cooperation of the European Union, which is similarly oriented.
One of Macron’s goals is to reduce Europe’s dependence on the US so that France is not dragged into a confrontation between China and the US over Taiwan. He has also argued that Europe should lessen its dependence on the US for weapons and energy, and that Europe should boost its defence industries. Reduction of the “extraterritoriality of the US dollar” is an objective he shares with China and Russia.
Sri Lanka would welcome France’s independent foreign policy because it will weaken the solidarity of the Western bloc on key issues like human rights and relations with China. France is expected to be more tolerant towards Sri Lanka’s wish to have economic relations with China in contrast to the other Western powers for whom a close relationship with
China is anathema.
Sri Lanka needs China’s financial resources for its recovery programme. It also desperately needs China’s continued support at the hostile UNHRC. France is likely to understand Sri Lanka’s compulsions in these matters even as it continues to lend its voice to demands for ethnic justice in the island and warn it against China’s hegemonic tendencies in the Indo-Pacific region.
