Macron’s vow to respect sovereignty of Indo-Pacific partners inscribed in French strategy for years

Between jabs at Donald Trump’s US trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students Tuesday that “on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change”. Macron was in Vietnam as part of a six-day Southeast Asian tour, as he tries to pitch his offer of a “third way” between the United States and China to a region caught up in a confrontation between the two. For in-depth analysis and a deeper perspective, FRANCE 24’s Genie Godula welcomes Juliette LOESCH, Associate Research Fellow in the Asia Center at the French Institute of International Relations (Ifri).