François de Canson: 'We are witnessing a geopolitical reshaping of the world order'
On March 20 in Toulon, François de Canson, vice-president of Région Sud in charge of attractiveness, spoke at the Defense and security exhibition...
GEOPOLITICAL RESHAPING For the elected official, this was an opportunity to recall that Région Sud is a land of Defense in its military aspect but also a land of Defense in its economic aspect with a dense network of industrialists. 'The relations of our territories and our companies with the armed forces are marked by a very rich heritage. We can be proud of it.
Today, we are witnessing a geopolitical reshaping of the world order, it is by working together, by hunting in a pack that we will get the best results. Some would say we need to relearn how to inspire fear! In short, the objective is to adapt our country to the new world disorder,' insisted François de Canson.
This heritage is not insignificant in the face of the new rules of the game that seem to be establishing themselves. The latest conflict intensity index revealed that the share of the world plagued by conflicts had increased by 65% over the last three years. We are witnessing a geopolitical reshaping of the world order.
An upheaval of the power game, marked by the end of the warlike inhibition of many States and a new deal in the consideration of the major world democracies.
RELEARNING TO INSPIRE FEAR TOULON, FIRST NAVAL BASE OF EUROPE He added: 'In the wake of the presentation by the Commission of the Livre Blanc on European defense and the "ReArm Europe" plan, following the announcements by Minister Lecornu to densify the budget of our armed forces, mobilizing the Var territory around these issues makes sense. First military department of France, we are at the heart of a land of defense.'
Indeed, Région Sud is the first in France in terms of military personnel, in terms of occupation of the built and unbuilt territory of the ministère des Armées. Toulon is the first naval and projection base in Europe in the Méditerranée, and Istres, the hub of the armies, has the longest test runway in Europe and hosts the second largest fleet of aircraft after Air France. We can also note the presence of the Patrouille de France in Salon-de-Provence, the oldest of the regiments of the Légion étrangère in Aubagne, recording €6 billion in turnover thanks to the presence of major industrialists and order-givers.
Thus, Airbus is the leading industrial employer in the region. In the Var, Naval Group has 4,000 employees. And the Base industrielle et technologique de défense includes Thales, Dassault, Safran and more than 200 SMEs at the cutting edge of technological innovation.
In total, 2,000 companies benefit from direct payments from the ministère des Armées. Without forgetting that an actor, who brings a significant number of surprises, is now on the other side of the Atlantic. The one who has taken control of the Maison Blanche presents himself as the master of the game of conflicts.
To this let's add a crisis of democracy, new disruptive actors (fentanyl crisis, impact of GAFA on our democracies), conflicts stuttering in the Moyen-Orient, a surge in natural risks worldwide. All this in an Europe that must pivot towards itself,' analyzes, with lucidity, François de Canson.
'Europe is not armed for power competition and is beginning to develop instruments of sovereignty. This geo-economic turning point caught off guard an Europe that was used to promoting free trade, commercial interdependence, as a way to regulate relations between European countries and to project peace and stability outwards. For a long time, the main argument of Europeans in the world was to say that we were not there to be a hard power but to be a normative power and an example for the rest of the world.
However, the current logic is rather towards the establishment of security, military and economic barriers or ramparts. Europe has been caught off balance, but the positions of recent weeks show that the Commission Européenne has initiated a shift. It is in this context that we must now carry weight.
It is by working together, by hunting in a pack that we will get the best results. Some would say we need to relearn how to inspire fear. In any case, we must definitively put away any form of naivety, use our strengths, and densify our advances in terms of drones, embedded AI in particular,' warns the vice-president of the Région.
• In the presence of: Basile GERTIS, president of the CCI, Lieutenant-colonel LEMAIRE, representing the Garde nationale, Jean-Baptiste MORINAUD, representing the préfet du Var, Christophe LUCAS, préfet maritime pour la Méditerranée.
Photo PRESSE AGENCE.