Emmanuel Macron arrived in Bangladesh on Sunday evening to “open a new page” in the relationship with this country which is “gradually regaining its place on the international scene” and thus “consolidating” France’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” after the G20 summit in India. During an official dinner in Dhaka with Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, the French President hailed “Bangladesh’s tremendous achievement”, stressing that it was “based on democratic principles and the rule of law”.
“France will be by your side again” in the future, he promised, especially in the face of the challenge of adapting to global warming in a country regularly exposed to flooding. The entourage of the French head of state had explained before the visit that it was aimed at consolidating France’s strategy for the “Indo-Pacific”, this vast area covering the Indian and Pacific oceans, the scene of growing international tensions between the United States and China, and where France, with its overseas territories, intends to develop its presence alongside regional partners.
“In a region faced with a new imperialism, we want to propose a third way, without the will to intimidate our partners or embark them on unsustainable plans”, launched Emmanuel Macron, in an allusion to Chinese aid accused of dangerously weighing down the debt of poorer countries.
Sheikh Hasina, for her part, welcomed this French plea “in favor of strategic autonomy”, which “coincides with our own foreign policy”. “You bring a breath of fresh air to international relations,” she told her guest.
Monday, after a visit to the Sheikh Mujibur Rahman memorial, founder of Bangladesh and father of the current head of government, Emmanuel Macron must have a bilateral meeting with the latter before returning to Paris. The French presidency estimated that after inviting Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi to the July 14 national holiday this summer in Paris, and a stopover in Sri Lanka at the end of July at the end of a tour in the Pacific, Emmanuel Macron “in the space of six months” had “done more about South Asia than in the space of a decade”.
