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France announces coast guard network with South Pacific countries against predatory fishing as China expands reach

Just Earth News | @justearthnews | 20 Jul 2021

France announces coast guard network with South Pacific countries against predatory fishing as China expands reach

French President Emmanuel Macron. Photo: www.elysee.fr

Paris: French president Emmanuel Macron on Monday said that France and the South Pacific nations would form a South Pacific Coast Guard network to act against predatory fishing as China expands its maritime reach, according to a Reuters report.

France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand -- the allies of the United States are actively intensifying their activity in the Pacific to challenge China's influence.

Tiny Pacific Islands, dotting the ocean form a formidable boundary between the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans and have under their control swaths of resource-rich ocean strips called Exclusive Economic Zones.

On Monday, Macron attended a video conference with the leaders of Australia, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and representatives of New Zealand and other Pacific nations, said the CNN report.

He said France will increase maritime cooperation with South Pacific nations to cope with the predatory logic which all the stakeholder countries in the region have suffered.

"We are going to launch a network of coast guards for the South Pacific around three main objectives: information sharing, operational cooperation and training," he was quoted as saying by Reuters.

Micron declared the cooperation network without naming China.

Asked if the policy was aimed at China, a French presidential advisor said it targeted illegal fishing that was "for the most part due to private actors".

China has moved deeper into South Asian waters in search of new fishing grounds as stocks have thinned out in the waters closer to home.

Chinese private and commercial fishing trawlers have breached the maritime borders of other countries, causing diplomatic rows with countries around the South China Sea and even as far away as Argentina.

France has boosted defence ties with Australia and India in a bid to counter Chinese influence in the region as it has island territories spanning the indo-pacific including Reunion in the Indian Ocean and French Polynesia in the Pacific.