Sea Control - Sea Control 304 - France in the Pacific (Part 2 - French)

Episode Date: December 23, 2021

CIMSEC, NOW AVAILABLE IN FRENCH! Commander of French forces in the Pacific, Rear Admiral Jean-Mathieu Rey, joins the program to discuss France's role and presence in the Pacific. This episode was edited and produced and hosted by Alexia Bouallagui.

Hey, folks, Jared here. This is an exciting development for us. We did the interview with Rear Admiral Ray, Commander of French Forces in the Pacific, twice. And this one is in French with our own Alexia Boulaghi conducting the interview. So for our French-speaking audience, please enjoy and tell your friends.

We're looking to do more of these in the future. This episode was edited and produced by Alexia. Speaking of editors, we are looking for some additional editors to add to our team. If you're interested, please email us at ccontrol at simsec.org with your resume. At SimSec, we believe victory in the maritime domain starts with great ideas communicated compellingly.

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You can find Alex, Jamie, Drack, and a pile of Iron Brew bottles wherever you download your podcasts. On that note, we'll turn over to Kimber's men. You're listening to Sea Control, hosted by the Center for International Maritime Security. Aloha, camarades de bord, et bienvenue à bord de Sea Control. My guest today is the counter-admiral Jean Mathuré, commander of the Asia-Pacific Zone and the armed forces in French Polynesia. My respects, admiral, thank you for joining us. Could you tell us a little bit more about your professional career? Aloha, yaorana, Alexia and to all.

I am a naval officer who has often operated in the Indo-Pacific. My current position is my fifth position in this part of the world. j'ai commencé ma carrière sur une frégate basée à Tahiti et commandé deux bateaux dans l'Indo-Pacifique un patrouilleur qui était basé en Nouvelle-Calédonie et une frégate basée à La Réunion en Océan Indien et j'ai pris mon commandement actuel donc le commandement de la zone Asie-Pacifique

et des forces basées à Tahiti le 1er août de l'année dernière en 2020 Merci beaucoup En guise de rappel, toutes les opinions exprimées nous appartiennent et ne sont représentatives d'aucune institution auxquelles nous pourrions être autrement associées. Amiral, quelles sont les forces dont vous disposez et comment s'organise Alpacy ?

Une collaboration entre les forces terrestres, aériennes et maritimes est-elle envisagée dans ce cadre ? Comme vous venez de le souligner, je suis effectivement à la tête d'une force interarmée qui est composée d'unités et de moyens des trois milieux. Six bâtiments de la Marine nationale, so from the Fregate, Prairial and its helicopter, to the Jassmin patrol car. Seven aircraft, from the Air and Space Army and from the Aéronaval,

so for transport, they are called Casas. Maritime surveillance, they are called Falcon Guardians, and sea and land rescue with dolphin helicopters. I also command two regiments of the Marine Infantry. I also ensure the commandment of all the French military forces qui opère dans deux zones, la Polynésie française et plus largement l'Asie-Pacifique. Donc ma force opérationnelle appartient à un dispositif militaire permanent français qui est déployé dans l'ensemble de l'Indo-Pacifique, basé à La Réunion, en Nouvelle-Calédonie

et en Polynésie, mais aussi chez nos partenaires à Djibouti, en Afrique, et aux Émirats arabinis sur la péninsule arabique. Ce dispositif permanent représente plus de 7000 militaires, 15 bâtiments de combat et près de 40 aéronefs qui sont périodiquement renforcés d'unités qui viennent de métropole et quand ces formations opèrent en Asie-Pacifique, elles sont sous mon commandement. What is the central mission of Alpacy first of all, and concretely for our listeners, what do your subordinated units do on a daily basis? In this immense zone that is Asia-Pacific, we have first of all the mission of protecting our territories, our springs and our resources against any threat, the first of which is illegal fishing and natural disasters. rien que pour la zone économique exclusive de polynésie et de clipperton cela représente plus de 5 millions de kilomètres carrés et la totalité de la z2 la zone économique exclusive française

en indo pacifique ouvre plus de 9 millions de kilomètres carrés donc les avions et les bâtiments de la marine assure tous les jours avec succès la protection de ces espaces les Marine helicopters provide rescue in the sea and on land to the benefit of the entire population. These are a bit like the Saint Bernards of Polynesia and the Polynesians. For the Army, it is about monitoring our bases and military facilities, including the atolls of Moruroa and Fangatofa, atolls where we conducted nuclear experiments. And our soldiers respect this forbidden zone and participate daily in the control of the good physical and biological state of these atolls. Even if we have not made any tests for 25 years, since 1996, we continue to keep them and protect these sites, which remain strategic for France, for our country.

Still in the METER, the deminers also ensure demining operations on historical ammunition that we periodically find on our islands or on suspicious parcels. And finally, the planes of the Air and Space Army ensure transport between the 118 islands that constitute French Polynesia on an area that, as you know, is as vast as Europe. He serves his planes as well in the Marine Infantry Section as the sick have evacuated from a distant island to the Papete Hospital on the main island of Tahiti. These forces have two areas of excellence, what we call the action of the state at sea, which can also be called the function of a coast guard,

and a second area of excellence, humanitarian assistance and rescue in the event of a catastrophe. In addition to protecting Polynesia and the Polynesians, we also take care of our fellow citizens who are through this immense zone, which is the Pacific, and we are working to ensure the respect of international law, multilateralism, free circulation in common spaces, and we are fighting against nuclear proliferation. France wants a power of balance and promotes multilateralism and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. It thus operates in the Far East, for example in the seas of China, or outside Latin America, as the Prairie Ferry recently did on the occasion of the international exercise UNITAS in Peru. Thus, we operate on a daily basis with our pre-positioned means, such as frigates, planes, and infantry sections,

which are periodically reinforced by units that come from metropolises, such as the amphibious group Jeanne d'Arc, with the Tonnerre helicopter carrier, which operated up to Japan, or the Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier naval group, which was in the Sea of China in 2019 and this year in the Indian Ocean. In France, we have a complete army model, we periodically project ourselves with the components of the three armies in the Indo-Pacific. I think in particular with the Emerald nuclear submarine, which has patrolled the seas of China and the Philippines this year, the aircraft of the Air Force, the Rafale fighters, the Phoenix ravitailleurs or the Atlas transport aircraft who came to Tahiti and to Hawaii to operate with the French forces who are there and to Hawaii with the American forces.

And so each of these deployments allows us to conduct high-level interactions with our strategic partners. I have cited in my examples the United States of America and Japan. Un exposé clair et structuré qui, je suis sûre, éclairera nos auditeurs internationaux. Pourriez-vous maintenant nous parler, s'il vous plaît, des missions de coopération régionale dans lesquelles Al-Bassi est impliqué actuellement ? En effet, pour assurer la sécurité dans le Pacifique, la France mène une stratégie de partenariat dans une démarche multilatérale. As responsible for the military operations carried out by France in this part of the world,

in Asia-Pacific, I must precisely set up the defense component of this strategy in synergy with our major partners. I mentioned the United States of America and Japan, but I also think of the partners in Southeast Asia, Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, but also more in honor of Korea, or also in the Southeast, Vietnam, with which we maintain high-level relations. We also work with Australia and New Zealand in Oceania, but also in Latin America, which I just mentioned,

with Chile and Peru and the other coastal areas of the Pacific. We base these partnerships on the areas of excellence of our permanent forces, Domaine que j'ai déjà cité, mais que je rappelle, l'action de l'État en mer et l'assistance humanitaire. Mais aussi, nous conduisons des actions militaires de haute intensité quand nous déployons, par exemple, le groupe du porte-avions Charles de Gaulle ou le groupe amphibie Jeanne d'Arc ou le sous-marin nucléaire d'attaque Emeraude. Lors de déploiements navals réguliers dans la région, depuis nos territoires ou depuis la métropole,

La Marine favorise ces coopérations. À titre d'exemple, depuis janvier 2021, la France a déployé sept bâtiments en Asie-Pacifique, dont un groupe amphibie avec un porte-hélicoptère d'assaut, mais aussi un sous-marin nucléaire et des frégates. Je peux citer l'exercice La Pérouse, qui a été mené dans le Gol du Bengal, avec des unités de la Marine française,

but also Indian, Japanese and American, as well as Australian. With the Indians, we carry out an exercise every year called Varuna. With the United States and Japan, we carried out an exercise called Arc 21 in May last year, a great amphibious exercise in Japan. And of course, all these deployments, we do them by respecting scrupulously les conventions des nations unies un clos et elle c'est ses déploiements cherche à promouvoir la liberté de navigation et surtout pas de faire monter les tensions mais bien de défendre l'ordre fondé sur les règles internationales et donc ces partenariats créer une cohésion entre nos

forces armées les rendent plus crédibles en participant à l'établissement de ce que je pourrais appeler une grammaire commune et ces actions de coopération renforcent l'interopérabilité dans le haut du spectre elles impliquent d'abord une coordination étroite entre les états-majors qui travaillent et collaborent pour mettre en place des moyens de communication sécurisé de Similarly, these partnerships make the equation more complex for potential disruptors who would want to hinder the freedom of navigation, create situations of done and done, or threaten the balance of the region and the natural resources of the maritime space in particular. These deployments are also optimized thanks to a logistics base network

chez nos partenaires et à un réseau d'officiers français qui sont déployés en Asie-Pacifique. Je pense à nos officiers de liaison chez nos partenaires et aussi à nos attachés de défense dans nos ambassades. Vous allez me dire qu'il n'y a rien de nouveau, mais il est toujours utile de répéter dans l'actuel contexte que ces échanges réguliers construisent la confiance mutuelle, que le partage des visions stratégiques avec les partenaires de la zone,

l'acquisition d'une grammaire commune, sont nécessaires à la stabilité de la région. Et c'est ce que nous voulons faire. La France, à ce titre, est membre de différents forums, le WPNS, Patios, en particulier dans ce dernier forum. Nous avons été à l'origine de l'établissement d'un coq de conduite pour les rencontres en mer qui permet aux marines de la région Asie-Pacifique

de mieux dialoguer. Donc nous voulons promouvoir une approche aussi multilatérale que possible et c'est dans cet esprit de dialogue et de confiance mutuelle que nous développons des coopérations avec les partenaires de la région. L'Indo-Pacifique est présenté comme le nouveau centre de gravité de la géopolitique. La France est un acteur clé, nous voulons de le voir.

Quel potentiel voyez-vous pour une coopération européenne navale plus poussée dans cette région? La France est un pays de la région, d'Asie-Pacifique. Nous sommes riverains, nous sommes 1,6 million à vivre sur nos territoires dans cette région. Nous avons 9 millions de kilomètres carrés de zones économiques. Nous sommes au moins 7000 militaires en permanence, avec au moins 15 bâtiments de combat, une quarantaine d'aéronefs. Et donc ça, c'est un atout pour nos partenaires, et en particulier nos partenaires de l'Union européenne.

Nous sommes dotés d'une stratégie en 2018, que le président de la République a mis à jour cette année, in 2021, during the France-Océanie summit. On this occasion, he announced a massive re-engagement of France in the Pacific area. So, if France was the first European country to formalize a vision, a strategy, it is because, once again, we are a coastal nation of the Pacific, and the only one to permanently have a prepositioned force system. and we have also pushed the European Union and our European friends

to be endowed with Indo-Pacific strategies, including in the field of security and defence. This was the case with the presentation on 15 September of the European Union strategy, which was a first step forward, which we are delighted with, even though the announcement was eclipsed by the announcement on the same day of the AUKUS pact. This strategy is no less, in my opinion, a major fact. France is ready to play its role of guide and European facilitator

by taking advantage of its solid implementation, if I may say, and its long experience in the region. It is in this spirit that we are preparing to take the presidency of the Council of the European Union in January next, with the objective, clearly displayed already, to put in place more cooperation actions here in the Indo-Pacific, in the image of the recent coordinate maritime presence device that was put in place across Africa in the Gulf of Guinea. We will do the same thing here in the Indo-Pacific. And this strategy and this European will, we have seen it, spoken in Germany, in the Netherlands.

We would like Europe, with its countries, to embody a credible strategic opportunity for regional actors, for which the current context that has created in particular the AUKUS pact and this bipolarisation, this context of tension, can find a solution with the European Union which would thus carry a third path allowing to put ASEAN back at the center of regional security affairs et proposer des pistes de coopération. Sur le plan opératif, sur le plan des opérations,

qui est mon champ d'action privilégié, prioritaire, nous essayons de profiter de chaque occasion pour coopérer avec les navires européens. Et récemment, nous avions un avion de surveillance maritime qui était déployé à partir du Japon en mission contre la prolifération en Corée du Nord et il a opéré avec la frégate allemande Bayern qui se trouve déployée dans cette partie du monde.

Et c'est ce genre d'exemple que nous voudrions développer au service de la sécurité et de la prospérité dans cette partie du monde. Vous me permettez de faire une transition pour ma prochaine question. En tant que commandant tactique, How have you been affected by AUKUS and the Australian decision to buy American submarines? How has it impacted your vision of the region operationally?

The first thing is that this decision was prepared in the greatest secret by the three countries concerned, Australia, Great Britain and the United States. So it was perceived by France as a blow to the back of extreme violence, une banque d'eau pour la France, pour les Français, pour leur armée. Une telle trahison abîme gravement la confiance que l'on peut accorder à ce genre de partenaires. Et une telle rupture va à l'encontre des actions de coopération que j'évoquais juste avant.

Mais sur le plan opérationnel, je me dois de poursuivre la coopération et les partenariats puisque les enjeux auxquels nous sommes confrontés l'imposent. Like after the attack of Marseille-Kévyre in July 1940, where the Royal Navy killed 1,300 French sailors, we must not mistake ourselves for enemies. And so we continue to work together with Australia and the United States for what is the Indo-Pacific. So these two countries, like France, are neighbors of the Pacific. And so we are working with them. This was the case recently during the PASIOS seminar

related to naval control, or during the Pacific Coast Guard seminar during which we worked in concert with Australia. And on a strategic level, we must collectively remain firm on our commitment to the freedom of navigation at sea, but also exemplary on the respect of international law, the fight against climate change and the preservation of the environment. These issues pose common challenges that can favor our Union, beyond the different, diverse and varied, and values ​​that can be different there again, or economic priorities as well. And we must all together remain firm, to our commitments and virtuous for winding up the spiral of tensions and the disinhibited competition,

if I may say, that we see today. Virtue has only two values if it is shared and collectively assumed and we wish to work with all the actors of Pacific Asia, partners that I mentioned, including members of the oculus but also competitors in addition to your missions you have also participated in the execution of the sanctions of the un against north korea since 2018 a french commander had quoted then by saying we are the eyes of the united nations in the region does France still intend to continue this role in the region indeed since Since 2018, the year in which Japan has agreed that non-American foreign contributions participate in these missions, which you mentioned,

the North Korean Illegal Transport Supervision Mission, and that we can realize them from the UN bases, the UNC, France contributes to the mission that we call AETO, which means Eagle in Tahitian, missions in which we engage several times a year and we will continue we insert vectors of aircraft as was the case in October last year with a falcon guardian also with marine buildings as was the case in February and May with prairie frigates the the prairie frigate and the tonnerre assault helicopter carrier.

So the fight against proliferation is part of our missions and we will continue to act against nuclear proliferation. What does Al-Basif do to fight illegal fishing? Do your naval units participate in the patrols to fight illegal fishing? If so, are you limited in the French ZEE? Where do you also work with partners in their zones? To combat illegal fishing, we carry out surveillance missions in our exclusive economic zones, our ZEEs, so Polynesia and Clipperton.

However, we do not limit ourselves to our zones. And indeed, in the case of permanent operations of the FFA, la Forum Fishering Agency, organisée par les pays riverains du Pacifique, et également signataire de la Western and Central Pacific Fisheries Commission, la WCPFC, toujours dans le cadre de la lutte contre la pêche illégale. Nous patrouillons dans le cadre de ces accords avec nos partenaires ou au profit de nos partenaires. Par exemple, un de mes bâtiments a réalisé dix jours de mission de surveillance en septembre

dans la zone économique exclusive des Kiribati, qui sont nos voisins du nord par rapport à la Polynésie. Un autre bâtiment a patrouillé aux abords de l'île de Pâques, qui sont nos voisins de l'est par rapport à la Polynésie. Nous avons observé d'ailleurs à cette occasion le rassemblement de palangriers chinois à la périphérie de la zone de l'île de Pâques, et nous avons reporté ça aux pays concernés, comme vous le savez, c'est le Chili. Donc, en complément de ces accords, la France veut développer un réseau de garde-côtes du Pacifique

en liaison avec les pays insulaires de la région. Un séminaire inaugural a eu lieu la semaine passée, organisé à partir de Tahiti, et ce séminaire faisait d'ailleurs suite à l'annonce par notre président, le président Macron, lors du dernier sommet France-Océanie de cette volonté de développer un tel réseau. Cette coopération vise d'abord à poser un cadre pour la fonction garde-côte entre la France et les partenaires de la région,

aussi avec les pays du Pacifique Quad et reposant sur trois piliers, la formation, le partage d'informations et l'intervention. So we have laid the foundations of this network with this seminar, with topics related to the fight against maritime pollution and surveillance or exchange of information in the field of what we call maritime domain awareness to fight illegal fishing. This network will be based on French territories, the Pacific, Polynesia, where we started, and New Caledonia, which will lead the next seminar in June 2022. One last question, Admiral. The Chinese presence in the Indo-Pacific areas is striking. Are your ships being able to interact with units of the Chinese navy or its auxiliary forces? And what has been the result of these meetings?

We have many interactions with the Chinese Navy and the Chinese Air Force, which are very present in the Far East. These Chinese forces are sometimes aggressive, but even in these cases of unjustified aggressiveness, and which remain rather rare today, the professionalism of our crews has allowed us to avoid an incident. I would like to remind you that, as you know, the strategy of France in the Indo-Pacific is not directed against any particular actor. As I said earlier, France wants a power of balance and promotes multilateralism and the peaceful resolution of conflicts. Thus, we are not closed to the conduct of joint activities with the Chinese armies. Et en ce sens, j'aurai d'ailleurs l'occasion, le mois prochain, de m'entretenir avec mon alter ego chinois, qui est un officier général basé à Canton. Malheureusement, c'est tout le temps dont nous disposons aujourd'hui.

Je voudrais remercier chaleureusement mon invité, le contre-amiral Jean Mathuré. Amiral, où pouvons-nous vous trouver en ligne et quelles sont vos prochaines missions ? Alors, vous pouvez nous suivre sur les réseaux sociaux, sur Twitter, alpacifrapacom, mais également sur Facebook, sur arrobase forces armées FAPF. Donc, concernant la poursuite de nos missions, nous travaillons au soutien de la sécurité humanitaire et environnementale avec les pays insulaires du Pacifique, qui sont nos voisins et qui partagent nos risques. And we are committed through cooperation in humanitarian assistance and disaster relief with mechanisms such as the France Agreement with Australia and New Zealand or with multilateral exercises such as Marara, which is an exercise in this area that we will lead in May to Bora Bora, near the place where I am based. et nous y retrouverons nos partenaires

de la zone, américains, japonais mais aussi de l'ASEAN d'Amérique latine et d'Océanie comme l'Australie et la Nouvelle-Zélande. Merci beaucoup Amiral et aux auditeurs merci d'être à l'écoute et à la prochaine. Oh, help me, Bob, I'm pulling the alley, way, hey, pulling the alley, help me, Bob, I'm pulling the alley, pulling out the shim, pulling out.

A porter, oh, and a porter, dear, oh, way, hey, pulling the alley, a porter, wine, both white and red, oh, pulling out the shim, pulling out. Oh, help me, oh, I'm bullying the alley. Why are they bullying the alley? Help me, oh, I'm bullying the alley. Bullying the alley, shit, oh, no.