Paris-based US Ambassador Denise Campbell Bauer has concluded a one-week tour of the French Pacific, where she has held talks with key stakeholders and consistently stressed those islands were at the core of “vital stakes” in the Pacific region.

The tour, from 24 to 31 October, included New Caledonia and French Polynesia and was described as “the first time a US Ambassador in France has travelled to Nouméa and Papeete”.

“New Caledonia and French Polynesia are at the centre of numerous vital stakes”, the US embassy in Paris said in a release last week, citing “indefectible links” and joint efforts worldwide to “preserve security and prosperity”.

The diplomat also labelled 2024 as an important year, marking the 80th anniversary of the Allied-backed liberation of France and its key operation Overlord in June 1944.

“Together, we will honour the courageous women and men, including hundreds of volunteers from New Caledonia and French Polynesia who fought oppression during Second World War for freedom, democracy and the Liberation of France”, she said.

During her Pacific visit, Campbell Bauer also dedicated a significant part of her agenda to meet not only local political leaders, business and civil society stakeholders, but also top rank French Army and Navy officers.

The aim, she said throughout her tour, was to foster joint efforts towards “a free and open Pacific region” and to “maintain international order”.

In French Polynesia, at the weekend, while also holding talks with French military top brass, she met local President Moetai Brotherson, who expressed the wish to see the current US Consular Agency become a fully-fledged Consulate in Papeete.

Brotherson, in a release, also welcomed the recent US-Australian announcement an agreement for two new Google trans-Pacific undersea data cables, Honomoana (US-Australia) and Tabua (Tahiti-Fiji), turning French Polynesia into a new Pacific internet hub.

Star-studded caps begin to align

The US diplomat’s visit comes in the footsteps of another significant Tahiti encounter: US Navy’s Seventh fleet commander vice admiral Karl Owen Thomas was in French Polynesia for three days (3-6 October) as part of high-level talks with Tahiti-based Commodore Geoffroy d’Andigné, commander of French Armed Forces in the Asia-Pacific and French Polynesia.

The meeting with the Yokosuka (Japan)-based US 7th fleet top brass delegation was said to have focused on military humanitarian aid in the Pacific region under the lines of “inter-operability” and coordination, particularly following natural disasters affecting Pacific Island States, the French Navy pointed out in a release.

In terms of assistance to the Pacific region, French, Australian and New Zealand armies are also following the same principles of a coordinated command under a so-called “FRANZ” pact that was signed in 1992.

In recent months, as part of a re-engagement policy aimed at reinforcing its presence in the Pacific, the US government has indicated it would like to see its Coastguards joining the FRANZ tripartite pact.

This was reiterated in September by President Biden at the White House-hosted US-Pacific summit.

The US 7th fleet, based at Yokosuka (Japan), is currently the largest of the forward-deployed US fleets, with 50 to 70 ships, 150 aircraft and 27,000 Sailors and Marines.

Its area of responsibility includes the Western Pacific and Indian Oceans.

It was established in 1943, post-Pearl Harbour, as part of the subsequent US engagement in World War II and the Pacific War.

Commodore Geoffroy d’Andigné took up his Tahiti-based position in August 2022.

He cumulates the roles of Pacific French Naval Commander (ALPACI) for the whole Asia-Pacific as well as Superior Commandant (COMSUP) of French armed forces stationed in French Polynesia (FAPF, an estimated 900 military personnel).

“At the end of 2022, the Chinese (navy) have approached our Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) in French Polynesia and in New Caledonia”, d’Andigné said in an interview with French magazine Challenges in September 2023.

He further analysed these Chinese incursions in French Pacific EEZs as “a way for them to tell us they are an ocean-sailing navy”.

As the American diplomat visited one of New Caledonia’s patrol frigates, the Vendémiaire, a new generation of French overseas-dedicated boats is gradually being commissioned to “reinforce French Armed Forces in New Caledonia’s maritime capabilities” and replace the older generation of P-400 patrol boats: on October 17, the “Auguste Benebig” (P779) has left Nouméa for its first operational mission in the Pacific, the French defence ministry announced.

The main objective of this first mission was to take part in fisheries policing operations, in coordination with the Pacific Islands Forum’s Fisheries Agency (FFA) and more generally to “protect French interests in the region”.

Stopovers are scheduled in Tonga and Samoa.

The second patrol boat of this new class (comprising six), the “Teriieroo a Teriierooterrai” (P780), was baptised on 19 October in the port of Calais (France) and will join her base in Papeete early 2024.

Pacific Defence Ministers to meet in New Caledonia

Defence ministers from several Asian and Pacific States are scheduled to meet in New Caledonia for two days during the first week of December, French Armed Forces in New Caledonia (FANC) commander, General Yann Latil recently announced, adding that French Defence minister Sebastien Lecornu is also scheduled to attend.

In October 2022, a previous regional meeting took place in Tonga and it included Defence ministers from the host country, but also from Australia, New Zealand, France, Chile, Fiji and Papua New Guinea.

France’s hosting the meeting in New Caledonia was widely regarded as in line with its Indo-Pacific strategy to reaffirm its presence in the region through its three collectivities of New Caledonia, French Polynesia and Wallis-and-Futuna.

In this context, New Caledonia is perceived as the hub of French military presence in the Pacific.

During his recent visit in New Caledonia late July, French President Emmanuel Macron announced a budget increase for the Pacific region and plans to set up a “Pacific Military Academy» in Nouméa to train soldiers from neighbouring Pacific island states under the principle of “partnership”.

The number of soldiers permanently posted in New Caledonia is also scheduled to increase from the current 1,350 to over 2,000 by the end of 2023.