president his story, ah, he behaved exactly like the terms and the poison spread their own with life. the great documentary series, iraq destruction of the nation starts march 4th on d w. the 50 w news asia coming up to date why europe is interested in the indoor pacific. a forum and badass will bring together e u and in the pacific ministers tomorrow. but what is the in the pacific, and what are europe's plans in the region? frances ambassador to the in the pacific explains and the agent olympic sign off with the leverage closing ceremony after more than 2 weeks of competition control receipt and keeping covey at

b. ah . i'm british energy, welcome to dw news, a shared ledger, good join us. europe has always been involved with asia and now it wants to be even more trade is the main area. it wants to do this in and improving technology. connectivity and security also form parts, if it's offering to the region. these are set to be discussed at a forum to be held tomorrow in paris. it will bring together foreign ministers of e u, member states, and some 30 countries in the area known as the interpreter. vic, it encompasses the countries located around the indian and pacific oceans. they account for 3 fifths of the world's population, are central to global value chains and produce almost 60 percent of global g d p.

that in chinese, a 3rd of this in the region has sped up the adoptions of india. pacific strategies, but not just the e u, but also the netherlands, germany and france. now ahead of the forum that bigger than pad is tomato dw sonya follicle. interviewed frances ambassador to the in different civic christoph panel. she began by asking him if frances into pacific strategy is more oriented toward security, and if that affects larger engagement in the region, it is not exactly true that the french strategy is very focused on defense. it's one important element, one essential element that there was this perception. i think it is widespread perception because our ministry of armed forces was the 1st to publish their into pacific strategy that the whole into pacific strategy addresses

. many other issues which are as important for us as, as the defense and security angle. take the example of climate change for, for instance, or the protection of biodiversity or protection of the oceans, health issues, but also economy issues, trade issues, connectivity issues. so our strategies clearly multi dimensional, we want to address all the challengers. security challenges are very serious and we not naive about them. but at the same time, we want also to be able to develop cooperation actions, concrete actions with countries of the region on other issues such as the one i mentioned earlier. it is very important to understand that this multi dimensional approach, which is also the approach of the you, is not precisely not the same as the one developed by other countries who focus

more on security and sometimes focus to exclusively on security. there are other issues in the new pacific that we should address how united is go to when it comes to its strategy in, in the pacific. some countries are more engaged than others, but what is important in my view and what the adoption of the indoor pacific strategy for cooperation demonstrated was that the e u, as a whole, recognizes that the new pacific is important and that we collectively have strong interests in that region, if you take, for instance, the protection of commercial feelings, if you take trade, if you take again climate change by diversity, the prediction of oceans and health, these are major issues, major interests for us. and what happens in the north pacific clearly has a strong influence on our future, our prosperity and security. so i think now there is

a wide recognition among you members, and this is reflected in the strategy of the you, that the indo pacific is very important. and this is something new. when we started the discussion in brussels and that was at the end of 2020, nobody would have predicted that we would adopt the you into a pacific strategy in september of $21.00. we thought it would take more time because there was some conviction. some advocacy to be made. we needed to discuss together what was what was good for us to, to have and vicious content, but also to reflect the views of all members state. and he took less than a year, which by you standard, this is quite a performance. what does the you can quickly offer people who live in the into pacific region. well, many thinks more stability,

food promotion by the you of multilateralism. of the rule of law. in the economy and trade high standards of science, foreign c you know, strong, social and environmental standards. this would be beneficial to the people of every country in the pacific. on the global issue. as i mentioned earlier, climate change by diversity. you can support and really make a difference by sporting cooperation with the countries of origin. and this says, a direct impact on the livelihood of the people there. because you know, they rely a lot on their environment. they rely a lot on the oceans for this living conditions, but also for their sources of income. there are many examples of what we want to achieve with countries of the regents, such as, you know, digital partnerships with japan, korea,

and singapore. but also an initiative on connectivity between the you nash, china has not been invited in the pacific forum in paris. do you think any real engagement in the inter pacific is possible without china being at the table? we have a 3 way approach to china. we consider china as a partner. we consider china as a competitor, and we consider china also as a systemic rival, which does not pursue the same vision of the international order. and i think old 27 member states are comfortable with that. and this is why we adopted the c u. china outlook in 2019 and the new pacific strategy is perfectly aligned with these 2019 document and perfectly aligned with the china policy of the european union. the u into pacific forum is different because for us it was

essential after the adoption of the strategy to discuss with the countries of the region of our bilateral corporation. it is all about partnership. and we, we feel that it was important after the adoption of the strategy to establish a kind of dedicate to dialogue with the old countries of the new pacific. we have one which i now already, we need one with the others as well, or stream your husband invited to the in the pacific forum to the surprise of many last year, campbell cancelled a major submarine deal with france and joined the new security lines with the u. s . and the u. k. at the time, there was a lot of outrage here in paris and it led to a real diplomatic crisis. can you give us a sense of where things stand white now between australia and france, there are 2 different things there. again, one is the bilateral relationship between france and the radio, which was badly damage by the circumstances of the orcas announcement. and the

other thing is that australia is a key player in the indoor pacific. everyone recognize that including of course, france, australia is a partner for the european union. we have corporations together. so as a key player and as a partner of the european union, it is natural that we should have invited australia. there is nothing special in it, but it does not mean that our bilateral relationship has improved. it is an invitation that was made by french minister and the high representative. it doesn't mean for us that the conditions are ripe now to restore the food trust that we had with those. try the before the orcas announcement, and i must tell you that progress has been a bit slow with those radio on this. but of course we hoping that turn one day

we are able to restore a normal relationship. but there was no reason not to invite them to the forum. there are key actor in the, in the pacific, christoph panel, their frances and buster to the in the pacific. and other key actor in the, in the pacific is of course japan. in fact, the country was the key driver of the into pacific concept. august being to japan's ambassador to the eager to morrow for his country's views on how the region is evolving. ah, the bigger winter olympics came to an end on sunday with the colorful closing ceremony and the symbolic, hemmed over to the winter games is next venue of the italian city of milan. in 2026, beijing organizers kept out the covered mountain pandemic from the games, but only by practically cutting off access to the general public. but that didn't seem to bother begging residence. ha ha ha!

lindsey lympics were great. we watch replays of the matches. and i think it was very exciting. give it to you. it was much better to watch than the olympic games in 2000 the date i had to go to the corner to her. oh, i think we've controlled the corona virus. well, because you see, when the foreign athletes came, some of them had to go through the quarantine if they tested positive. so i think we've been very strict and very thorough in pandemic control, with our young woman that embody in 2008 when her dad and i were not yet married. we went to the birds nest stadium and watch to paralympics game. now our daughters could witness the winter olympics, so we're passing these down to the next generation. here her you will find hallmark . and the delux jonathan crane has been reporting from the beijing olympics here. he gives us his take on covering more than 2 weeks of competitions and

controversies. well just over 2 weeks or competition. and now i went to ellen pix, have come to an end. they started with questions. i've been trying to human rights record on the question, how is tongue, why they've ended with a familiar topic that a rush. i don't think i'm camilla, but i will not just criticism over the values and integrity of competition with probably relieved attention. some of the more issues concerning china will take from now move on to slightly less controversial crime harrison. she is time while the role on the repression, millions of people suffering on the chinese rule. the weakest people in hong kong keep in tibet. well that continues, and that's it for today is of course born our website, d deborah dot com, forward slash asia will leave your now with images from the closing ceremony of the beijing rent olympics. one of the most controversial olympics today in see you

tomorrow or by ah, i selected for you you every week in your inbox, subscribe now to some are driven by merciless greed. others are fighting the destruction. forget to limp and readers came to prison. they shut down the native today, the government is trying to destroy the indigenous people with a large scale burton a blank grabbers are exploiting. b, amazon rain forest. indigenous peoples are now bravely opposing them because it's

not only the earth's brains loans that are dying to the rain forest. we cease to exist and or people die out. a long term report from the heart of brazil starts march 9th on d. w. ah, can europe live without russian gas tensions over ukraine of may? the east supplies certainly seem a lot less secure. also coming up credit suisse. this fighting off allegations it provide as bank accounts. and tory is criminals along a massive leak that's been double spaced secrets. and visit the australians bomb hosting a weld 1st. some flower crop, cultivated entirely by a drone. this is

a business i'm of in berlin. welcome to the program. could tensions between russia and ukraine force europe into an energy rethink? much of the continent is heavily reliant on natural gas imported from russia, but we can relations between moscow and it's european neighbors. and that supply is looking less secure. the latest figures show that the e u imported 168 cubic meters of gas from russia last year. that is an awful lot to lose. so to russia, for whatever reason, choose to turn off the taps. now remember, europe is already in the middle of an energy crunch. so how could europe make up for the loss from your, from russia liquefied natural gas from the u. s. could be a solution. currently the, you imports 100 tank is worth of l n, g. a month but.