In a speech on 28 July during a visit to French Polynesia, French President Emmanuel Macron underlined the benefits of French protection in the region, within the framework of France’s Indo-Pacific strategy and with New Caledonia’s impending independence vote in mind. His protection message was directed to leaders of France’s territories in the Pacific and beyond, and indeed to Pacific island leaders generally. Macron invoked France’s nuclear-deterrence capability (based on testing conducted for decades in the Pacific over regional opprobrium) as a plus for France and French Polynesia, and implicitly for the wider region.
