Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier file photo:VCG

A French naval official said on Tuesday during his visit in Japan that part of a French carrier strike group - Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group (CSG) - is due to visit Japan sometime between February and March next year. 

The commander of the French navy in the Pacific region, Rear Admiral Guillaume Pinget, was interviewed by the media on Tuesday in Tokyo. Pinget, who himself commanded the Charles de Gaulle between 2019 and 2021, said that while France as a Pacific nation regularly sends warships to the Indo-Pacific, this will mark the first deployment of a French carrier strike group to the wider region in over four decades," the Japan Times reported.

The new mission began on November 28, as the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle set sail from the southern French port city of Toulon, escorted by a nuclear attack submarine, a supply ship and frigates specializing in antisubmarine and antiaircraft warfare.

According to the French Embassy, the French carrier strike group will conduct two joint exercises in the Indian Ocean with countries such as India. It will head to the Pacific Ocean, where it will rendezvous with the US 7th Fleet and exercise with US, Japanese, Australian and Canadian navies as part of the Pacific Steller maneuvers. The French Embassy in Tokyo said the move will allow the country's military to deepen its longstanding partnerships in the region, according to the Japan Times.

Zhuo Hua, an expert on international issues at the School of International Relations of Beijing Foreign Studies University, told the Global Times on Wednesday that France's deployment of the Charles de Gaulle Carrier Strike Group to the Indo-Pacific region aims to highlight France's status as a military power and its identity of collective defense in EU through extra-regional military operations.

Moreover, through high-profile deployments in the Asia-Pacific and military cooperation among allies, this move can demonstrate Europe's military value and strategic stance in the context of security in the Asia-Pacific to the US, thereby seeking to secure the US' continued deep commitment to NATO and European security, he said.

It is noteworthy that the deployment of aircraft carriers by major European countries to the Indo-Pacific region invariably involves visits to Japan, though this time the French carrier group will only send escorting ship for port call due to "complicated procedure."

In 2025, UK aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales will visit Japan. Italia's aircraft carrier Cavour made its first-ever port call in Japan in August.

In this regard, Zhuo believes that the motivations behind the military deployments of the US, UK, and France in the Asia-Pacific region differ. However, objectively, these actions present a picture of major Western powers from outside the region engaging in military build-up in the Asia-Pacific. This intensifies tensions and undermines the efforts of Asia-Pacific countries to independently build a regional security framework.