2025/11/25 by Maclellan, Nic
#Blue Pacific #France #French Polynesia #Indo-Pacific #New Caledonia #geopolitics
paper · doi:10.26021/16142
From 2018, French President Emmanuel Macron has promoted France’s Indo-Pacific Strategy, seeking to advance French and European interests in the region at a time of US-China strategic competition. Despite the rupture caused by the 2021 AUKUS agreement, strategic partners like Australia and New Zealand have backed France’s regional agenda. However, pro-independence leaders in France’s Pacific dependencies are eager to advance the region’s Blue Pacific agenda rather than France’s wider geopolitical interests. The crisis in New Caledonia that erupted on 13 May 2024 highlighted ongoing tensions for French colonial policy in the Pacific islands. This article discusses ways that the French State has sought to advance its Indo-Pacific Strategy and gives examples of tensions with the region’s Blue Pacific agenda. It also looks at the rapidly changing strategic context for France in the Pacific, as the Trump administration launches tariff wars and disrupts historic transatlantic ties with the European Union. As France seeks to maintain its colonial presence in the region, the article outlines six ideological, military, and economic drivers of France’s geopolitical agendas in the Pacific.