South China Sea: France joins US to mount multilateral challenge on China
Total Views |
Paris, Feb 12: Responding to US President Joe Biden's call to mount multilateral challenge on China in the South China sea, France has deployed a nuclear attack submarine in the water body. France's Defense Minister Florence Parly declared after the unprecedented military maneuvers in the South China sea that "This extraordinary patrol just completed its passage in the South China sea."
The French Defense Minister Florence Parly had announced earlier this week through a tweet that the European power has deployed the nuclear attack submarine 'Emeraude' along with naval support ship 'Seine', to the maritime area in order 'to affirm that international law is the only rule that is valid, whatever the sea where we sail." The minister after the deployment emphasized that France's actions are a part of broader international effort to uphold international law in global sea lines of communications and stated that, "This is a striking proof of the capacity of our French navy to deploy far away and for a long time, together with our Australian, American and Japanese strategic partners."
The recent move is the latest instance of French muscle-flexing in Asian waters and is bound to spark China's rage. The French frigate Vendemiarie conducted unprecedented freedom of navigation operations in the Taiwan Strait back in 2019, amid rising tensions between China and Taiwan. The move to deploy nuclear submarine in contested waters of the South China sea comes in the backdrop of US President Joe Biden's warning of a new era of extreme competition with China a few weeks earlier, whereby the American President emphasized the necessity for a joint response along with like-minded allies in Europe and Asia.
French President Emmanuel Macron has adopted proactive regional diplomacy by expanding defense and economic ties with like-minded powers such as Australia and India as part of a broader Paris-Delhi-Canberra axis.' The deployment of French navy coincides with the first dual-carrier Freedom Of Navigation Operations (FONOPS) in the South China sea by the Joe Biden led US administration, signalling less than a month in office growing international cooperation to rein in Chinese ambitions in adjacent waters.