Abensour visited New Zealand on a tour of the region, stopping in Australia and Fiji. While in Wellington, he spoke at an event hosted by the Diplosphere foreign affairs think tank.
New Zealand has been spoiled by foreign visits as geopolitical tensions heat up. Abensour’s visit came the same week US Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel Kritenbrink visited Auckland.
Abensour is France’s second ambassador to the Indo-Pacific and is based in Paris.
His message is to affirm that France is a country of the Pacific and is keen to partner with Pacific countries for purposes of development and climate change.
“France is a country from the Indo-Pacific because of our territories in the Indian Ocean and in the Pacific Ocean,” Abensour said, speaking of the many island territories France possesses in the region.
The fact France sees itself as a country of the Pacific has never been in question for New Zealand. Quite the opposite. One of the greatest foreign policy challenges of the 20th century was not getting the French to up their involvement in the region - but getting them to leave.
But that is also in the past.
Abensour said the history of French nuclear testing in the Pacific did not come up once during his meetings with New Zealand officials in Wellington on Friday.
Wounds have healed. The region appears more open to the involvement of other countries in the region, although there is the fear this turns the region into a theatre for great power conflict.
He said France was upping its involvement in regional organisations.
It became a development partner of Asean in 2020, the same year it became a full member of the Indian Ocean Rim Association.
Abensour is no stranger to the region. As a young man, he travelled to Taiwan, where he learned Mandarin.
He served as ambassador to Singapore, prior to becoming ambassador for the Indo-Pacific.
Abensour said there are three prongs to the role of Indo-Pacific ambassador: inter-agency co-ordination in France, implementing the European Union’s strategy for co-operation in the region, and finally, representing France at regional groupings.
He said France was committed to these multilateral groupings, such as Asean and the Pacific Islands Forum.
He said emerging small groupings, which could be called “mini-lateralism” - something like Aukus, perhaps - should not come at the expense of making sure existing forums worked well.
“We should work out something complementary between these two, but we would not favour mini-lateralism, which would be at the expense of existing multilateral organisations,” he said.
Abensour said it was crucial the Pacific did “not become the playground for the strategic competition of great players”.
