May 30, 2025
BRUSSELS – Few leaders of major Western countries would contemplate devoting an entire week to touring South-east Asia, not because the region is unimportant but more because of other pressing commitments at home.
Yet French President Emmanuel Macron has done precisely that.
He began his three-nation South-east Asian tour in Vietnam on May 25, went on to Indonesia on May 28 and is delivering the keynote speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore on May 30. By the time he returns to Paris, a whole week would have passed.
This is undoubtedly an impressive display of French diplomacy, a powerful opportunity to defend France’s positions on the conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, as well as the country’s strategy for the Indo-Pacific.
Everywhere Mr Macron went, his top officials tried to convince the local media that the tour is designed to present France and Europe – on behalf of which Mr Macron often claims to talk – as both uniquely reliable and understanding partners, unlike the US or China, which are vying for top influence in the region.
Yet, in reality, all French presidents since General Charles de Gaulle, who founded the current Constitution of the Fifth Republic back in 1958, have argued that they were charting a “middle road” approach between superpowers by offering “no strings attached” partnerships, as the Reuters news agency, quoting briefings from French ministers, put it this week.
So the real challenge for Mr Macron during his latest tour of South-east Asia is to persuade his hosts that such old French slogans have new and practical meanings.
On this, Mr Macron appears to have scored well.
French presidents’ power over foreign, security policies
He can devote so much time and energy to foreign tours because, according to the French Constitution and political practice, the conduct of foreign and security policies are the president’s exclusive decision-making domains, the so-called “chasse gardee” or “private hunting ground” of the man who sits in the Elysee Palace.
French foreign and defence ministers are appointed to execute the president’s orders and dismissed when they fail to do so; sometimes, they are not even consulted before the president launches new initiatives.
The current French government has no parliamentary majority and has struggled to adopt a budget.
Mr Macron may also be forced to hold a fresh general election later in 2025, the second such ballot in as many years. But none of this affects the President’s foreign policy agenda, the sort of luxury most other European leaders do not enjoy.
Although Mr Macron may not appreciate the comparison, the powers he wields most closely resemble those of US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping, rather than those of fellow European leaders.
Coupled with this is Mr Macron’s deep interest in foreign and security questions, his extensive knowledge of these topics and his readiness to spend hours talking to journalists and academics about such matters.
It all makes the French President a media favourite and a feast at any international conference.
Occasionally, Mr Macron’s desire to be contrarian and challenge received wisdom gets him into trouble.
In February 2022, for instance, he refused to accept US intelligence warnings that Russia was about to invade Ukraine and continued to believe that he had a personal friendship with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In April 2023, Mr Macron told journalists on a flight back from China that it was not the Europeans’ business to be “followers” of US policy on Taiwan by “getting caught up in crises that are not ours”.
The comments are now widely seen as a blunder, and the President has repeatedly rolled back from them.
Still, one of Europe’s longest-serving and most experienced politicians was on top form this week.
Huge contracts from Vietnam
Despite a long colonial history and shared cultural and diaspora links in France, no French president has visited Vietnam for almost a decade, and the presence of French companies in Vietnam’s economy remains negligible.
Now, however, big contracts for the sale of Airbus commercial jets may be supplemented by future agreements on nuclear cooperation, railways and other infrastructure projects.
While the €9 billion (S$13.1 billion) price tag put on the contracts Mr Macron signed in Vietnam may be exaggerated – Airbus, for instance, is not an exclusively French enterprise, so its sales cannot be attributed solely to France – there is no question that the deals are substantial.
Nor is there any doubt that targeted by 46 per cent US trade tariffs and pressure from China, whose President Xi visited Hanoi in April, Vietnam welcomes this renewed French engagement.
France is now the only European country that Vietnam classifies as a first-level strategic partner, a status on a par with Hanoi’s three historical partners: China, Russia and India.
‘My brother President Prabowo’
Mr Macron’s trip to Indonesia was equally significant.
French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu already visited Jakarta in January to deepen the defence partnership between the two countries, which are celebrating 75 years of diplomatic relations in 2025.
Indonesia has yet to receive any of its 42 ordered French-made Rafale fighter jets, reputedly worth US$8.1 billion (S$10.4 billion), and negotiations over the acquisition of two Scorpene-class French submarines are ongoing, although a framework agreement is now in place.
One constant obstacle is Indonesia’s insistence on offsets, requiring French manufacturers to share at least a third of any defence contract value with local companies.
However, coming at a time when the performance of the Rafale jets was called into question in the recent military showdown between India and Pakistan, the reaffirmation of France as a major military supplier of such jets to Indonesia is a notable achievement.
Progress on the delivery of Scorpene submarines could also enhance France’s efforts to sell the boats to the Philippines as well.
Mr Macron also enlisted Indonesia in building diplomatic momentum for an international summit on the Palestinian question, which France plans to co-chair with Saudi Arabia in New York at the end of June.
In return, President Prabowo Subianto – whom Mr Macron now calls a “brother” – declared that “once Israel recognises Palestine, (Indonesia) will be ready to recognise Israel and establish diplomatic relations” with the Jewish state.
That was not the first time Mr Prabowo made such a suggestion; the Indonesian leader already mentioned this possibility on April 12 while on a visit to Turkey. The entire topic is hardly relevant since Israel has no intention of recognising an independent Palestinian state.
Nonetheless, Mr Prabowo’s statement boosted Mr Macron’s claim that France can lead in efforts that not only alleviate the suffering of Palestinians but also normalise Israel’s relations with the world’s most populous Muslim nation.
Mr Macron has often been criticised for talking up France’s importance well beyond the country’s capabilities.
But that is not such a sin at a time when many other European leaders remain utterly absorbed by their seemingly insurmountable domestic problems.
- Jonathan Eyal is based in London and Brussels and writes on global political and security matters.