France needs to win markets in Asia: French FM

France needs to win markets in Asia: French FM

PARIS (AFP): France needs to win markets in Asia to help employment at home, French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe said in an interview published in the daily Le Figaro on Thursday, the day the minister begins an Asian swing in Japan.

"For some years, we have shown if not indifference at least a certain neglect of a number of Asian countries," Juppe acknowledged, saying France should play a double role in the region.

"In the first place France should have a greater economic presence in the world's most dynamic zone. Employment in France is also at stake in Asia. In the second place, France should play a political role, particularly in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia," its former colonies.

After Japan, Juppe will go to India on April 4 before meeting up with his Prime Minister Edouard Balladur in China from April 7 to 10. The visit marks the 30th anniversary of France establishing diplomatic relations with Beijing.

France, whose relations with Taiwan have become restrained since the improvement in ties with China, is hoping to improve its trade balance with the communist giant, currently standing at 12 billion francs (US$2.1 billion) in China's favor.

But Juppe said France "has no intention of closing its eyes to the human rights problems in China."

On Japan, Juppe said that it was "illusory to imagine that a country of such economic power could remain a political dwarf" and stated that France had no objections to Japan becoming a member of the UN Security Council on condition that it took part in peacekeeping operations and respected regional balances of power.

"If Japan and Germany join, it is clear that the major countries of the South, even if less developed economically, will also be destined to join," he added.