The French army is taking part in joint drills with Japanese forces this week for the second year in a row. Named after a 19th-century military collaboration between the two countries, the Brunet-Takamori exercises send a message to China and Russia about Japan's expanding defence partnerships with other countries.
Nearly 50 French troops have been deployed to Japan for the Brunet-Takamori 2024 exercise, which sees the French Army's 2nd Foreign Infantry Regiment train alongside the 39th Infantry Regiment of the Japanese Ground Self-Defence Force.
The training, which concludes on Saturday, is taking place at the Ojojihara and Iwateyama manoeuvre camps in northern Japan. Focused on infantry combat operations, the drills are being supported by drones.
The first edition of the exercise was held in the French overseas territory of New Caledonia in September to October 2023.
According to the French Ministry of Defence, the exercise was the first step in "develop[ing] a convergent strategy in favour of peace and stability in the Indo-Pacific region".
Shows of strength
It is the first time that France's Foreign Legion has participated in bilateral exercises with Japanese troops.
Sections of the corps joined Japan and the US in shared military drills in May 2021, in an exercise known as Arc 21.
At the time, Rear Admiral Jean-Mathieu Rey said that France joining the drills was intended to "ensure a regular presence" of French forces in the Indo-Pacific region, and to "strengthen regional partnerships".
France joins Japan and the US in military exercises in the Pacific
French participation in bi- and multilateral military exercises in the Pacific region are partly to counter China's growing assertiveness.
As such, they are in line with the French Ministry of Defence's 2021 strategy update, which warns that China "has doubled its defence budget since 2012, making it the second largest in the world, while expanding its nuclear arsenal and showing new ambitions in terms of power projection".
China's ambitious claims over the South China Sea have resulted in a build-up of Western allies' presence in the Pacific region.
But Beijing and Moscow are also using the sabre-rattling to boost their own joint military and navy exercises, in what could result in a vicious circle of increasing military activity.
At the same time as the French-Japanese drills, Russia and China conducted their own large-scale exercises. According to the Russian Ministry of Defence, the joint Ocean-2024 manoeuvres involved more than 400 warships and over 90,000 personnel.
Additionally, Russia is sending naval and air forces to join China's Northern/Interaction-2024 exercises, which are being held in the Sea of Japan and the Sea of Okhotsk throughout September.
France remains cautious
The drills come amid tension between China and Japan, after increasingly bold Chinese manoeuvres.
This week a Chinese aircraft carrier briefly entered Japan's contiguous waters for the first time, Japan's public broadcaster NHK reported on Wednesday, citing unnamed defence sources.
NHK said Chinese vessel the Liaoning sailed between the islands of Yonaguni and Iriomote in the southern Okinawa region, temporarily entering the zone adjacent to Japan's territorial sea.
Earlier this month, Tokyo strongly protested after another Chinese naval ship entered its southern territorial waters. And last month, Japan scrambled fighter jets after what it called the first confirmed incursion by a Chinese military aircraft into its airspace.
France and Japan agree to start talks on military cooperation deal
While cooperating with Japan, France has been careful not to antagonise China, in spite of the growing tensions in the region.
When NATO planned to open a liaison office in Tokyo in 2023, to help improve cooperation with Japan, French President Emmanuel Macron blocked the initiative.
"The Indo-Pacific is not the North Atlantic," Macron insisted, "so we must not give the impression that NATO is somehow building legitimacy and a geographically established presence in other areas."
