French President Emmanuel Macron said on Monday that France and South Pacific nations would launch a South Pacific coast guard network to counter "predatory" behavior, which an adviser said was aimed at illegal fishing, as China expands its maritime reach, reports CNN.
The United States and allies including France, Japan, Australia and New Zealand, are actively expanding their activity in the Pacific to counter China's influence.
Though tiny in land mass, Pacific islands control vast swaths of resource-rich ocean called Exclusive Economic Zones, forming a formidable boundary between the Americas and Asia.
"To better cope with the predatory logic we are all victims of, I want to boost our maritime cooperation in the South Pacific," Macron said after a video conference with the leaders of Australia, the Marshall Islands, Papua New Guinea and representatives of New Zealand and other Pacific nations."