Japan seeks French backing as Macron begins Asia trip in Iran war’s shadow

French President Emmanuel Macron waves to journalists in Paris last week.

Photo: Reuters Emmanuel Macron touches down in Tokyo this week with a packed agenda and a receptive audience in a Japanese government anxious about a choked oil route and looking for support amid its diplomatic falling-out with Beijing.

The French president’s three-day visit, which begins Tuesday before he heads to South Korea later in the week, comes as Japan looks to Europe for solidarity amid a crisis in the Strait of Hormuz that has sent oil prices soaring.

The backdrop to Macron’s meetings with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, whom he last met on the sidelines of November’s G20 summit in South Africa, is a diplomatic rupture months in the making.

It erupted late last year after Takaichi told parliament that military action against Taiwan could constitute a “survival-threatening situation” for Japan, justifying the deployment of its Self-Defence Forces.

China’s foreign ministry has said her remarks crossed a “red line”.

Beijing sees Taiwan as part of China to be reunited by force if necessary and does not countenance foreign governments weighing in.

Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi attends a parliamentary session in Tokyo on Thursday.

Photo: AFP In the months since, Chinese military manoeuvres around Japan had intensified, said Guibourg Delamotte, a professor of political science at the National Institute of Oriental Studies in Paris and a visiting senior research fellow at the University of Tokyo. “Chinese military manoeuvres around Japan now circle it from the south as if aiming for Tokyo,” she said, adding that Japan would be seeking Paris’ “understanding” on the issue.

Last year, Chinese government vessels were recorded in the contiguous zone around the disputed Diaoyu Islands, known to Japan as the Senkakus, for 357 days – a record sustained presence.

Celine Pajon, head of Japan and Indo-Pacific research at the French Institute of International Relations’ Centre for Asian Studies, said Tokyo was likely to seek French backing against what it saw as China’s “economic and political coercion” – particularly with France preparing to host a G7 summit in June. “The visit also underscores a shared recognition of the growing linkages between the Euro-Atlantic and Indo-Pacific regions, and a mutual drive to diversify strategic partnerships,” Pajon said.

A man refuels a motorcycle at a petrol station in Tokyo on March 18.

Photo: AFP Looming over Macron’s visit

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