French President Emmanuel Macron has arrived in Singapore for the final leg of a three-nation, six-day tour of Southeast Asia that took in Vietnam and Indonesia. He will give a key-note speech at the Shangri-la Dialogue, Asia's premier defence and security forum on Friday evening.
Macron is first scheduled to meet with his Singaporean counterpart, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, and hold talks with Prime Minister Lawrence Wong.
He is also set to deliver the opening address on Friday evening at the Shangri-La Dialogue, a three-day forum organised by the International Institute for Strategic Studies.
This is the first time a European leader has been invited to deliver the inaugural address at this forum, which last year notably hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Macron is expected to press that Russia's war in Ukraine is destabilising Asia by "making North Korean soldiers fight on European soil against Ukrainians", a presidential aide said ahead of his visit.
Macron courts Jakarta, offers Indonesia 'third way' in regional power play
He also intends to emphasise that the conflict has "global consequences", including in Asia, where, according to him, Moscow supports "North Korea's ballistic and nuclear programmes".
The French leader is also keen to counter the view of a European and Western "double standard" between the war in Ukraine and the conflict in Gaza.
"We fully understand the sensitivities of Muslim communities in the region," the aide said, adding that Macron is "particularly committed" to achieving peace in the Middle East.
No top officials from China
The Shangri-La meeting has historically offered rare opportunities for senior officials to hold face-to-face talks, and will be attended by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this year.
However, China's Defence Secretary Dong Jun will not be in attendance, Beijing said Thursday, despite ongoing tensions with the United States.
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Instead, the People's Liberation Army National Defense University has sent a delegation to take part, ministry spokesman Zhang Xiaogang said.
The delegation "will have in-depth exchanges with different parties to build more consensus", he said.
Zhang did not say why Dong was not attending or whether the Chinese team would meet with US counterparts.
Sovereignty
Throughout his six-day trip, Macron has repeated his respect for the sovereignty of Asian countries "caught between the United States and China".
In putting forward his "Indo-Pacific strategy," he aims to propose a third way between Washington and Beijing, the Elysée said.
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Experts say France wants to position itself as a solid defence partner in the region, particularly with Indonesia, which has previously sourced its fighter jets from Russia.
Jakarta "intends to diversify" in this area, "so as not to be dependent on a single supplier," Lina Alexandra, from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in the Indonesian capital told French news agency AFP.
The comments came as French and Indonesian leaders signed agreements on cooperation in a range of fields including defence, trade, agriculture, disaster management, culture and transport.
Legion of Honour for Prabowo
The pair attended a military parade on Wednesday and Macron gave Prabowo the Grand Cross of the Legion of Honour France's highest military or civil award.
Prabowo is an ex-general accused of rights abuses under dictator Suharto's rule in the late 1990s. He was discharged from the military over his role in the abductions of democracy activists but denied the allegations and was never charged.
The pair called for progress on "mutual recognition" between Israel and the Palestinians at a key meeting next month as Macron brought the world's most populous Muslim-majority nation into his diplomatic efforts.
"Everywhere I go, I'll be saying one simple thing: France is a power of peace and balance," Macron wrote on social media at the start of the Asia trip.
"It is a reliable partner that believes in dialogue and cooperation. When some choose to withdraw, France chooses to build bridges."
