The timing has something to smile about. From April 9 to 10, a French frigate crossed the Taiwan Strait in the midst of encirclement exercises conducted by China around Taiwan, according to information from Challenges, confirmed to Le Figaro by a well-informed source. From April 9 to 10, the Prairial surveillance frigate sailed in this maritime corridor, the day after Emmanuel Macron’s three-day state visit to China.
The Chinese maneuvers, which aimed to intimidate Taiwan, concluded on Monday April 10 “successfully”, Beijing said. The presence of the tricolor ship in this sector “clearly demonstrates our commitment to an open Indo-Pacific, without provocation, without escalation, with respect and with clarity”, Emmanuel Macron said on April 12, during a State visit to the The Netherlands.
These remarks by the president were aimed in particular at clarifying the interview given to the American site Politico and to the daily Les Échos, published on his return to France, which had caused an outcry among our European and American allies. The Head of State there claimed “strategic autonomy” from the European Union on the question of Taiwan and urged the Twenty-Seven not to “be followers” of Washington and Beijing. “Emmanuel Macron implied that we had no interest to defend in the region, when we have always demonstrated that we were present there”, explains a connoisseur of China, who points in the about the president a “contradiction with French doctrine”.
The presence of the frigate Prairial in the Taiwan Strait is the most striking example of this. His time in the sector is not an extraordinary event. The Prairial, like the Vendémiaire of the same class, regularly patrols the area. “We have regular rotations in the Indo-Pacific zone, (…) at least once a year,” confirmed the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a press briefing on April 13.
The naval diplomacy and training mission Joan of Arc also passes through the region often. The amphibious helicopter carrier (PHA) Dixmude, accompanied by the frigate La Fayette, left Toulon on February 8 for a world tour which will see them cross the South China Sea. In 2021, the Emerald nuclear attack submarine was also deployed there.
The military but non-aggressive presence of these buildings of great importance “demonstrates what France is capable of doing, and that it can in particular deploy very quickly”, underlines our interlocutor. On April 8, the multi-mission frigate Lorraine also left for Japan, for a qualification deployment, in order to be admitted to active service. All these deployments demonstrate that France has real interests in the region, and that it intends to demonstrate its presence.
By sailing in the Taiwan Strait, the French Navy is also fully asserting its freedom of action. Because many military ships carefully avoid the area, for fear of irritating China. “We are the only European nation to carry out these rotations in the Taiwan Strait”, moreover indicates the Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs in its press briefing. However, the area is an international waterway. But in June 2022, the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had deemed that China had “sovereignty, sovereign rights and jurisdiction over the Taiwan Strait”.
Before crossing the Taiwan Strait, the frigate Prairial, based in French Polynesia, in any case stopped at the port of Haiphong, Vietnam, from April 2 to 6, where it conducted a “PASSEX” exercise with the Vietnamese navy. . She will then station in Korea, an opportunity for Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna “to deliver a speech on the Indo-Pacific aboard the Prairial”, announces the Quai d’Orsay. If the purpose of the frigate is not known, it could be joint training with Japan, or a mission to enforce the international arms embargo in North Korea.