French minister meets with president, stresses commitment to Indo-Pacific security

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna paid a three-day visit to Korea intended to foster deeper bilateral cooperation in security in the Indo-Pacific region.

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna delivers a speech aboard the French Navy frigate Prairial on Saturday morning in Incheon. [MICHAEL LEE]

French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna paid a three-day visit to Korea over the weekend for meetings with Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol and Foreign Minister Park Jin intended to foster deeper bilateral cooperation in security in the Indo-Pacific region.

The French foreign minister’s visit to Korea overlapped with the arrival of the French Navy frigate Prairial, which arrived in Incheon at 9 a.m. Thursday morning on a port call.

“We are determined to deepen our commitment to preserving peace and security in the Indo-Pacific region as part of our Indo-Pacific strategy adopted in 2018 in collaboration with our strategic partners,” Colonna said in a speech during a cocktail reception held aboard the Prairial on Saturday morning.

Colonna also said France “will not compromise on the goal of achieving the complete, verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of North Korea” and “will continue to rally our diplomatic and military assets, such as the Prairial, to ensure that Security Council resolutions are respected.”

Earlier that morning, the French minister took a trip to the demilitarized zone and the Joint Security Area via helicopter from the Prairial, marking the first time that French military aircraft has flown close to the inter-Korean border.

The previous day, Colonna met with President Yoon and held the two countries’ 4th strategic dialogue with Foreign Minister Park.

The Prairial’s arrival in Korea came two months after it departed its base in Tahiti in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France in the South Pacific Ocean.

Just prior to its arrival in Korea, the frigate transited through the Taiwan Strait amid large-scale military exercises by China’s People’s Liberation Army around the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as a renegade province.

The exercises took place a day after French President Emmanuel Macron departed China following a state visit to Beijing.

In response to a question about the ship’s passage through the strait, Colonna said, “I assure you that the voyage of the Prairial to Korea was planned well before President Macron’s trip to China. The course of the Prairial is not related to the state visit to China, or even to my visit to Korea.”

Regarding the possibility of a visit by Macron to Korea following his visit to China and his upcoming trip to Japan to attend the May G7 summit in Hiroshima, Colonna said the French president would likely visit Korea later in the year due to scheduling.

“President Yoon has invited President Macron, and he is eager to visit Korea to strengthen ties, so there will be a presidential visit later this year or next year,” Colonna said.

During her speech, Colonna called Prairial’s journey “a perfect illustration” of French Indo-Pacific strategy.

“[The Prairial’s voyage] began with a mission to combat illegal fishing for the Pacific Islands Forum. It conducted operations alongside the Philippine Coast Guard and the navy of our strategic partner, Vietnam. Next, it held a training course for the Royal Cambodian Navy, before reaching South Korea via the Taiwan Strait, through which it transited a few days ago, in line with the law of the sea,” Colonna said.

Also aboard the Prairial on Saturday morning was French Ambassador Philippe Lefort, French Defense Attache Col. Frederic Ettori, other foreign and Korean dignitaries and approximately 100 French Navy members who have been aboard the frigate since it departed Tahiti.

Ettori said that while the ship’s mission is multi-faceted, its main objectives are to reaffirm the right of ships to pass through international waters and combat overfishing and drug-trafficking.

“The Prairial has not only engaged in efforts to control fishing activities in the South Pacific, especially in the waters of smaller countries that do not have adequate maritime forces to protect their exclusive economic zones, but also apprehended drug traffickers at sea,” Ettori said.

“But above all, the Prairial’s mission is to reaffirm the right of navigation in key international passages, such as the Straits of Malacca,” Ettori added.

The defense attache also said the Prairial’s port call was intended as outreach to encourage greater naval cooperation between the two countries and encourage Korea to assume a greater role in matters of regional maritime security, such as piracy.

Referring to the Prairial’s port call in Incheon as a “sign of friendship and understanding between France and Korea,” Lefort characterized the frigate as well as the French crew aboard as a physical representation of the French military presence and security commitments in the Indian and Pacific oceans.

In response to a question about whether France plans to join allied exercises by South Korea, the United States and Japan in the face of North Korea’s escalating military threats, Lefort said, “France as an Indo-Pacific power will take on responsibility for maintaining security in the region.”

French Ambassador to Korea Philippe Lefort, second from left, Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee, third from left, and French Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Catherine Colonna, third from right, and other dignitaries prepare to cut the ribbon for the new French embassy building in central Seoul on Saturday afternoon. [YONHAP]

Following the cocktail reception aboard the frigate, both the French foreign minister and ambassador attended a formal opening ceremony for the new French embassy building in central Seoul, accompanied by Korean first lady Kim Keon-hee.

The building includes a new annex, designed by architects Cho Min-suk of Mass Studies and Yoon Tae-hoon of Sathy, who also renovated the original modernist embassy pavilion designed by late Korean architect Kim Chung-up in 1962.

Kim, who was a protégé of the French architect Le Corbusier, designed the original pavilion with a curved roof reminiscent of traditional Korean eaves.

Colonna described the restored pavilion as “light as air and full of boldness,” adding the building symbolizes “diplomacy that is open to the world, attentive to civil society, is respectful of its host country, is based on concern and is understanding of the other and seeks dialogue and the debate of ideas between cultures.”

In her remarks, Kim called the renovated building “the perfect combination of Korean spirit and French charm” and a representation of “ultimate beauty.”

First lady Kim Keon-hee views the renovated Kim Chung-up Pavilion at the French Embassy in central Seoul on Saturday afternoon. [PRESIDENTIAL OFFICE]

BY MICHAEL LEE [lee.junhyuk@joongang.co.kr]