August 2, 2023
No. 253
The French National Assembly and Senate, following debates on July 12 and 13, respectively, approved the 2024-2030 Military Programming Law (loi de programmation militaire, LPM). The law provides for a record-high military budget of €413.3 billion over a seven-year period. It reaffirms that France, as a major power in the Indo-Pacific and in accordance with the law of the sea, will continue to defend freedom of navigation in the Indo-Pacific, particularly in the South China Sea and the Taiwan Strait, in order to preserve regional peace and stability. French President Emmanuel Macron officially promulgated the LPM on August 1, thereby completing the legislative process.
The two houses of the French parliament took concrete action to include safeguarding freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait in the LPM, gaining the support of the government of France. This action not only marks the first time that the French parliament has included Taiwan in a law, but it also makes France the first major country to enact legislation calling for the defense of freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) of the Republic of China (Taiwan) highly welcomes and sincerely appreciates that the parliament and government of France have taken substantive steps to ensure peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait.
During debates on the LPM in the National Assembly, French Minister for the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu stated that since the end of the Cold War, France has not encountered such diverse and volatile security threats, including the reemergence of power politics, hybrid threats, terrorism, and risk of nuclear proliferation. In the face of these unprecedented security threats, France seeks to strengthen its combat capabilities in space, cyberspace, underwater operations, and other new domains under the LPM. It will also increase budgets for intelligence, surface-to-air defense, and the reserve force; bolster the security of France and its overseas territories; and enhance France’s capabilities for power projection and intervention.
The record-breaking €413.3 billion LPM budget for the next seven years is expected to boost France’s defense spending to two percent of its GDP in 2025. The law further points out that France’s Indo-Pacific defense policy is highly consistent with its interministerial approach, as well as the European Union’s Indo-Pacific strategy. It also states that France, being the only European nation with territories in the Indo-Pacific, is the initiator and an important pillar of the EU’s Indo-Pacific strategy.
As a major stakeholder in the Indo-Pacific, France has reiterated the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait at numerous bilateral and multilateral events, including the Group of Seven Leaders’ Summit, bilateral leaders’ summits, and foreign and defense ministers’ meetings. The inclusion of the defense of freedom of navigation in the Taiwan Strait in the LPM indicates that cross-strait peace and stability not only meet the strategic interests of France but also form an indispensable element for ensuring a free, open, stable, and prosperous Indo-Pacific. Taiwan, a responsible country in the Indo-Pacific, will continue to cooperate with France and other like-minded countries to jointly safeguard the rules-based international order. (E)