🟡 Suivez en direct le discours d’ouverture d’Emmanuel Macron au Dialogue de Shangri-La

22nd Shangri-La Dialogue. Je suis delighted que vous êtes ici en Singapore pour engager en trois jours de diplomatie. The Shangri-La Dialogue, depuis qu'elle a été first convené en 2002 et avec l'unvavering et outstanding support de la gouvernement de Singapore, pour laquelle je suis très grâle, a été une plateforme pour les gouvernements pour expliquer et présenter leurs politiques, pour ces politiques et leurs différences être discutées en une bonne et transparente façon. Et c'est une plateforme pour les partners pour trouver et reconfirm la common purpose dans leur pursuit de solutions à la many régional security challenges que define notre agenda.

En notre temps, the rules that govern political relations, economic exchange and, more generally, the civilized conduct among nations are under severe pressure. Narratives of great power rivalry and of multipolarity compete and often intersect. In response, some governments are attempting to hedge their engagements, some are attempting to build bridges, and others are increasing their commitments to partnerships new and old. Many are finding that engaging on their own terms with the international security environment is indeed very challenging. Connecting national ambitions to economic and military capabilities strains resources and sometimes depletes political capital fast.

But understanding partners and working with partners is a prerequisite for the effective and efficient allocation of these resources. It is true that regional security contexts are increasingly linked and yet instruments of security governance need to primarily work for the region that invests in them to be sustainable. And in this context, the ISS itself maintains a multi-region presence and identity, convening the Shangri-La Dialogue and the Monama Dialogue, the two premier security and defense summits in their respective regions, the Asia-Pacific and the Gulf.

And in Europe, in light of the many threats and regional and global security issues, the ISS, headquartered in London with a very vibrant office in Berlin, has significantly grown its activities. We now convene a defense summit in Prague, which is focused on military capability and defense industrial questions, and the Global Security and Innovation Summit in Hamburg. Both contribute to the conversation in Europe on how to generate capabilities and capacity so that Europe can take responsibility for its own security. And I'm delighted that one of the people helping us do this is ISS trustee and former French minister of the armed forces, Florence Pali.

Florence, in her remarks as minister at the Shangri-La Dialogue, as actually was the case with her successor, Sébastien Le Corneau, always referred and referenced France's vital Indo-Pacific dimension and presence. So it is splendid and an honor that we have here with us today Emmanuel Macron, President of the French Republic, to deliver the keynote address at this opening dinner. The President, in the last few days, has completed successful visits to Indonesia and Vietnam, which have further strengthened the economic and military ties with those nations. And you will recall that under the President's leadership, France has developed and brought to life its Indo-Pacific strategy.

You all know that President Macron cares deeply and thinks deeply about questions of international order and international security. And he is the first head of state of a P5 nation to address the ISS Shangri-La Dialogue and we are delighted to have him here. Mr. President, the floor and this podium is yours.

Thank you very much for this introduction, Mr. Chairman. Presidents, Prime Ministers, Mr. Prime Minister, dear Lawrence, Ministers, Members of Parliament, Ambassadors, Generals, Ladies and Gentlemen, I want first to thank Prime Minister of Singapore for his hospitality and his commitment to the strategic partnership with France. and thank you for offering me this opportunity and thank you to ISS for the opportunity to address a very important forum for security in Asia and beyond.

And I have to say I received the invitation for your predecessor, Lawrence, in 2018 and I have to confess this evening that I'm not sure I was so right to procrastinate because for sure it would have been easier to come in 2019 and deliver a speech on all these topics. Nevertheless, I'm here in front of you and I will try to share some convictions. And first, let me tell you why I'm so committed to this region and why France has something to tell. First, and it's most of the time forgotten because France is an Indo-Pacific player. We have overseas territories in the region from Réunion Island, Maya, to Wallis et Futuna, New Caledonia, French Polynesia and other territories.

So more than 1 million inhabitants, French inhabitants live in this region. we have more than 8,000 soldiers permanently deployed in our bases. We established permanent bases in the region with some partners and we deployed a lot of common exercises with French during the past few years with a lot of countries and even recently here with our aircraft carrier. At the same time, obviously, we are a European country and I will revert in my remarks several times about this new special relationship we have to consider between Europe and Indo-Pacific and European Union and ASEAN.

Clearly, we are living in time of multiple crisis and it has to create new incentives to cooperate and perhaps try to invent new forms of cooperation as well. I would like first to try to explain a very important concept to me starting this discussion which is the fact that we have to be very careful on double standards for our action. Second, I will try to revert on the common interest in strategic autonomy we have between Europe and Asia and I will try to share some key pillars of this new partnership between Europe and Asia. but first allow me to start with the importance of not to accept I would say the double standards in the current environment.

Indeed, we live in this world of multi-crisis and the big risk is just to look at the crisis at our border and to forget our principles and to forget the fact that all this crisis and these wars are interconnected. And I say that in a country I have to say and I want to commend you Lawrence and your predecessor where for instance the Ukrainian war was never perceived as a European war but from the very beginning you took your responsibility and you were very vocal. But let's be clear we have several risks of double standards in our current environment. Double standards in Ukraine for a lot of countries in Latam, Africa, Asia, here.

I hear the narrative and most of the time what is shared is a sort of equidistance between Ukraine and Russia and the fact that this is a European conflict and that we are clearly spending too much energy too much time and creating too much pain for the rest of the world with what's happening in Ukraine. Allow me to say this is a total mistake because if we consider that Russia could be allowed to take a part of the territory of Ukraine without any restriction, without any constraint, without any reaction of the global order, how would you phrase what could happen in Taiwan? What would you do the day something happened in Filipinos? There is no several global order by definition.

If we stick to our principles, this is true in Europe and this is true elsewhere. So what is at stake in Ukraine is our common credibility to be sure that we are still able to preserve territorial integrity and sovereignty of people. No double standard. At the same time, I hear the voice in this region as well in Africa and Latin, the Gulf, about the double standard in Gaza where a lot of things that the Americans and the Europeans are in fact giving a free pass to Israel. and this is a big risk. This is why we did condemn the terrorist attack from the Hamas. We work very hard with some key partners and I want to thank them here to release the hostages. This is the very last one.

We do support all the initiatives taken for a ceasefire and I do thank the efforts made by the United States of America, Egypt, Jordan, Qatar, in that direction. But we do believe that we need a ceasefire. The emergency is for humanitarian answer and we do have to work very hard for recognition of the Palestinian state and a mutual recognition in order to create a strong architecture of security in the region. And I can revert if you want into Q&A on this aspect. But this is the only way not to leave the floor to those saying you live with double standards.

If we abandon Gaza, if we consider there is a free pass for Israel, even if we do condemn the terrorist attacks, we kill our own credibility in the rest of the world. And this is why we do reject double standards and this is why I think it's very important in our current environment to be consistent and to follow our principles, our rules, and to consider that what is at stake is clearly the global order and what is at stake is our credibility to protect this global order. Having said that, I think a risk of double standards is as well to abandon totally our agenda of sustainability and health.

And it could surprise a lot of people when I say that in front of a lot of defense ministers and so on, but everything is intercorrelated. And by the way, we experienced quite recently the fact that the pandemic could have some security impact and change a little bit the curse of the world. But this is a double standard if we, as rich country, we stop investing in sustainability, meaning climate and biodiversity and health because this is a new nexus, because it could create new crisis and new security crisis and because this is a killer for our credibility vis-à-vis the source. This is the best way to open the door for a big divide of this world.

So this is why, having said that, I do consider that rejecting double standards in all these affairs do not imply balancing everything, but very clearly requires us to be very consistent in this approach. And I insist on that because I do believe that the main risk today is the risk of division of the world and a division between the two superpowers and the instruction given to all the others, you have to choose your side. If we do so, we will kill the global order and we will destroy methodically all the institutions we created after the Second World War in order to preserve peace and to have cooperation on health, on climate, on human rights and so on.

But we need them probably much more than before. This is why I believe our key challenge is how to preserve peace and stability and prosperity in this current environment and in a moment when the competition between China and the United States for global leadership could create constraints and a side effect for each of us without us willing or even able to imagine handing our interests over to one or the other how to react. and I will be clear. France is a friend and an ally of the United States and is a friend and we do cooperate even if sometimes we disagree and compete with China. And I do intend to remain so loyally with a demanding approach of our own interests.

but France is no less attached to what is essential for herself strategic autonomy freedom of sovereignty and we do defend this approach for Europe and for Indo-Pacific which means we want to cooperate but we don't want to depend. We want to cooperate but we don't want to be instructed on a daily basis what is allowed what is not allowed and how our life will change because of the decision of a single person. And the commitment by France is part of a long-term commitment.

It's a singular voice faithful to a certain idea of people and their independence which General de Gaulle set out in 1966 in a speech in Phnom Penh and this idea remains a compass of France and we intend to continue being a force for peace and equilibrium. Having said that I do believe that Europe and Asia and this is my second point have a common interest in this very moment and a common interest to follow this line of strategic autonomy. First because we live the same challenges. We have a challenge of revisionist countries that want to impose under the name of spheres of influence in reality spheres of coercion.

Countries that want to control areas from the fringe of Europe to the archipelagos in the South China Sea at the exclusion of regional partners oblivious to international law. Countries that want to appropriate resources whether fishing or mineral and crawl out others from their benefit. Countries that want to impose on free countries their foreign policy choices or prejudice their alliances. No way for this field of coercion. Second, we have the challenge of terror and enduring mutual grievances that remains all too present and we saw it very recently again in the region.

and it is compounded by the alarming propensity of countries who resort to force including between heavily armed states as we saw it as well very recently. Third, we live in a time of a potential erosion of long-time alliances whose credibility and clout is under threat. Alliances, by the element of balance they brought, had been essential to maintain stability in Europe and Asia and the sense that their promise might not be ironclad is ushering in a new instability. We see it every day and the credibility of the alliances which is to be confirmed is a very important point for stability. Fourth, we have now a big risk of nuclear proliferation.

This is why the situation in Iran is so critical and this is why we do consider that the work which is being done by the United States of America and Iran is so critical and this is why especially the E3 wants to be reliable and consistent partner in order to avoid any type of nuclear proliferation in Iran because it would trigger all sorts of justification to proliferate elsewhere with the domino effect.

but let's be clear the situation is very challenging as well in Europe when Ukraine the country that renounced nuclear weapons in 1991 is the one that Russia is repeatedly invading how could there not be a second thought when the DPR key is developing a massive nuclear arsenal unconstrained by China and is now entering an alliance with Russia a nuclear weapon state permanent member of the UN Security Council supposed to act responsibly how are regional countries threatened by the DPR are supposed to act what can reasonably be on their mind when they owe their people before anything else as security in Europe and in Asia how can mid-sized countries faced with aggressive nations ensure that they won't have to surrender or live in fear but sure enough our challenges are not only similar they are getting increasingly intertwined they are intertwined because when you look at this situation during the past few years I had objected to NATO having any role in Asia because for me N is for North Atlantic and because I don't believe in being enrolled in someone else strategic rivalry but what's happening with North Korea being present alongside with Russia on the European soil is a big question for all of us and this is why if China doesn't want NATO being involved in the South East Asia or in Asia they should prevent clearly DPRK to be engaged on the European soil all this is happening also at a moment when nations like France and Asian countries are facing issues of scale raised by the development of technology and I clearly make the linkage between these two issues our channels are intertwined because we do face the same reality whether we are talking about AI or space scale is of the essence and in these two critical drive technologies the first to reach scale will be much more competitive and will drive out the others and we can't lose the race and this is why by the way we want to team up with Singapore on all these issues and we have a very strong partnership but this is how we are clearly linked together in these common challenges another race we cannot afford to lose is that of hybrid warfare with cyber and disinformation there is a clear attempt to undermine our democracies our social cohesion sometimes even our territorial integrity and all this is done with underlying geopolitical aims and clearly this is the same here and in Europe more generally as we do also for future confrontations we have to make sure that we arm ourselves with the tools of tomorrow not yesterday war and let's be clear both ASEAN and Europe are impacted by the impredictability of the new tariff approach and the end of a rule-based order for our trade and this is something which will impact our prosperity our capacity to finance our defense efforts and something which will request much more cohesion all these challenges I've just mentioned are the perfect illustration of the fact that we are living in a time where what we have to do is to face these challenges and to take into consideration that both the Europeans and the Asians are much more intertwined than we thought but the question now is how to act concretely in order to deliver this strategic autonomy agenda this is a challenge for Europe this is a challenge for your region and this is a common challenge because this is the only way to preserve freedom prosperity and security let me start by Europe first we cannot overestimate the depth of the mental revolution brought about by Russia's aggression and the concerns about alliances but let's be clear I have advocated for years more independence more sovereignty more strategic autonomy for all Europe let's be clear there was a doubt during few years but in March 2022 the European Union decided very clearly the strategic autonomy agenda and we decided on defense and security on technology on industry on energy on all the differences to reduce our dependencies and there is car model it is absolutely critical in the current environment and during the past few months based to the work we call it with the British Prime Minister the coalitions of the willings and the strong coordination with some leaders with Chancellor of Germany Prime Minister of Poland but all bunch of countries of the European Union the European Union and a lot of allies we build this coalition of the willings regarding the Russian war in Ukraine and the message was very clear we will work together to the very end to provide security guarantees to the Ukrainians to build a robust peace in this region of the world and to reinvest our own defense and security because Russia will remain an existence of threat for us this is the second wake-up call after 2022 and what we will do what we are doing is to increase till slip on 5% GDP our defense expenditure probably we will go further and faster but this is the willingness of the Europeans to build their independence in terms of defense and security which is consistent with the request and the fair request of the United States of America which is to say you should take more of the burden for your own security we cannot afford anymore with all the expenditures for your security a third of the expenses on the eastern flank of NATO is taken by the US we need the Europeans to do much more for themselves but at the same time we need the Europeans to be much more independent for themselves meaning building their own capacities and capabilities developing their own industries and working by choice with the US with partners here in the region but not depending on anybody especially for our own security this is our agenda this is the agenda of strategic autonomy in parallel this is what we want on AI what we want on technology on industry we want to increase our strategic autonomy it will request a lot of investment and obviously it will request as well a much more competitive Europe this is why and I link this to agenda it's an emergency to accelerate the competitiveness agenda of the European Union because this is the only way to make the security agenda and the autonomic strategy agenda credible meaning we have to deepen the single market we have to streamline our regulation and sometimes to kill some of these regulations to be much more attractive and we have to accelerate our capacity to build new single markets especially in finance with capital market union especially to fund what I'm saying with private money to be much more efficient on energy and telco second we want to build new partnerships and it's part of the strategic autonomy and based on the assessment that between ASEAN and Europe we have these common challenges and these common threats we want to work more actively on the common agenda France presented in 2018 an Indo-Pacific strategy based on our capacity to propose a third way which is to say a lot of you are afraid and concerned by the respect of the liberty of sovereignty liberty of navigation respect of your sovereignty and so on for good reasons we do share this view but you don't want to be confrontational with China we do share the same approach and the third way we do share with a lot of countries present in this room is the basis of our Indo-Pacific strategy which is how to preserve an open environment rule-based order in the region and we want to be and we want to be reliable partners for that this is the core of the bilateral commitment we have in Singapore but with a lot of countries of the region and exactly what we did during the past few years common exercises common capacities more common programs et cetera et cetera they're risking no confrontation but clearly strategic autonomy in Indo-Pacific strategy and we are working on a new strategic review and a new Indo-PAC strategy will be issued in the weeks to come and in parallel we raise at the European scale this approach because we issued now four years ago a European Union Indo-Pacific strategy which follows exactly the same line and which is the best illustration of our common commitment and very clearly we want to go further particularly with India the Asian countries and the members as well of the Trans-Pacific Partnership and for me this new approach is very important and we discussed yesterday with the Prime Minister and with a lot of countries here if we team up we represent a third of global growth even more in terms of trade we have a lot of credible players some of them have deterrence capacities let's work together on this agenda of strategic autonomy let's work in an open way in a genuine way let's engage with everybody which is available but let's work very closely on defense security and all the building block of our value chains to be sure that we derisque our model let's work to have as well trade corporations new trade agreements because if between EU and the Trans-Pacific countries we have such an agreement it's extremely powerful for the rest of the planet third having spoken about Europe about the alliance between Europe and this region what to do together new coalitions new agreements and how to reset a new rule rule-based order 70 years ago the Bandung Conference was for many the opportunity to express their rejection of the logic of blocs and to express their desire to find their own way the time for non-alignment has undoubtedly passed but the time for coalitions of action has come and requires that countries capable of acting together give themselves every means to do so we must show consistency where others practice a double game and this is exactly my call tonight at the Chandelier Dialogue let's build new coalitions for open trade open dialogue to de-risk our models stable environment and new coalitions to stabilize open and rule-based order the rules must remain the inviolability of borders respect for sovereignty refusal to use force as a means of domination and we must cultivate a spirit of independence and a desire for cooperation and saying that I have the feeling almost to quote the DNA and to describe the DNA of Singapore but this is exactly what we need with in fact the offer to both the US and China to join such an approach but we cannot just remain seated and say ok there is no more WTO what do we do with the tariffs ok we are not so sure that we have the full fledged guarantee in the existing alliance what do we do we want to act we want to preserve our stability our peace and our prosperity so let's work together let's build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia based on our common norms on our common principles our shared responsibilities to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers our response must be to relaunch our efforts to develop sustainable trade respectful of common social and environmental standards and step by step the European Union is building this network of new generation agreements and this is what we want to do with Asian countries and CPTP I do believe indeed that based on such an approach we can deliver very credible and concrete results and I really believe that based on such an approach we can convince the others to join us given our magnitude and our credibility this is for me the content of the strategic autonomy we have to deploy now in Europe and we have to cooperate on this basis with your region I will just conclude now with a plea a call a call for action for Europe and Asia to work together on a coalition of independence a coalition of countries that won't be enrolled but won't be bullied a coalition of countries that object to the double standards a coalition of countries that will pull their strengths to ride the race of technology uphold norms and protect their sovereignty a coalition of countries that will navigate the rough seas of trade and protect the global commons of nature and climate and finally a coalition of countries determined not to yield to the whims of the greed of others but to chart a peaceful way to bring balance in trouble and to affirm that negative passions can be opposed and indeed superseded by universal values this is our common DNA and this is exactly I do believe I do believe why Singapore does exist why your region have so many countries being independent today and why both France and the European Union are here today thank you for your attention

thank you very much for this wonderful way to kick us off I noted that you had pairs of important words there to structure your argument credibility and consistency that we need to aim for coercion and conflict that we need to avoid coalitions and strategic autonomy as means to take on responsibility for our own security and avoid being dependent on others that's a very rich menu and you have very kindly agreed to take a couple of questions from the audience and we will do that and I see first hands already going up we will take a few questions that the president will answer and then eventually we will conclude and move to the dinner part I think is Evan Laxmana if I can get a microphone yeah from ISS Asia there you go Evan thank you Mr.

President for the speech my name is Evan Laxmana from the AA-SS this

this you and you and you and you