Emmanuel Macron made a short stopover in Sri Lanka on Friday evening, the first visit of a French president to this island in search of a difficult economic recovery and object of covetousness between India and China.
The French head of state, who arrived around 11:30 p.m. local time in Colombo (6:00 p.m. GMT) and left less than two hours later, was greeted as he got off the plane by his counterpart Ranil Wickremesinghe, noted a journalist from Agence France-Presse (AFP).
This stopover, made official only on Wednesday, comes on Emmanuel Macron’s return journey after a tour of Oceania, from New Caledonia to Papua New Guinea via Vanuatu.
“This is a historic visit”, argues the Elysée, because the first of a French head of state on this island located off the coast of India, nine times smaller than France and populated of 22 million inhabitants.
During his meeting with his counterpart, at the airport during the refueling of the presidential plane, Mr. Macron was to salute the action of “recovering the country’s economy and maintaining the rule of law, respectful of the diversity of communities present on the Sri Lankan territory”, explains the French presidency.
Ranil Wickremesinghe came to power a year ago after his predecessor fled, driven out by massive protests amid the country’s worst economic crisis since independence in 1948.
Helped in particular by the IMF, Sri Lanka has since been trying to get back on its feet, even if the country is expected to remain bankrupt until 2026.
In this context, Emmanuel Macron was to discuss “the issue of Sri Lankan debt” and its restructuring, while Beijing, the country’s main creditor, agreed in March to reschedule the repayment of its loans.
Economically fragile, Sri Lanka is also torn on the geostrategic level between the two rival regional powers, China and India.
A context which more generally prompted the French president to denounce Thursday, from Vanuatu, the “new imperialisms” at work in the Indo-Pacific, aiming in particular without naming the growing Chinese influence.
Mr. Macron and Mr. Wickremesinghe should therefore share “their common vision of a free and inclusive Indo-Pacific region, respectful of the rights and sovereignty of each of its members”, underlines the Elysée, recalling that “France has committed to establishing a regional maritime security school” in Sri Lanka.
Emmanuel Macron also intended to invite his counterpart to “join the Paris Pact for people and the planet”: an initiative born from the last summit in the French capital to try to redirect global finance in the service of the climate.