The French president has doubled down on his Taiwan rhetoric after American criticism
Paris is an ally and never a “vassal” of Washington, French President Emmanuel Macron mentioned on Wednesday, defending his feedback about “strategic autonomy” of the EU on the subject of the rising tensions between the US and China.
“Being an ally doesn’t imply being a vassal… doesn’t imply that we don’t have the appropriate to suppose for ourselves,” Macron mentioned in Amsterdam, at a joint press convention with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Requested for the French place on Taiwan, Macron mentioned that Paris helps the established order, which means the “One China coverage and the seek for a peaceable decision to the state of affairs.”
Coming back from his journey to China on Sunday, Macron had argued that the EU can’t be “simply America’s followers,” and that it was not within the bloc’s curiosity to stoke tensions over Taiwan. “The more severe factor can be to suppose that we Europeans should grow to be followers on this subject and take our cue from the US agenda and a Chinese language overreaction,” he had instructed reporters.
The remarks earned him a swift rebuke from US Senator Marco Rubio, a Florida Republican on the international affairs committee, who recommended Washington may depart the EU to deal with the Ukraine battle by itself.
Taiwanese parliament speaker You Si-Kun on Tuesday argued that France had forsaken its motto of “liberty, equality, fraternity” and that superior democracies shouldn’t “ignore the lives and deaths of individuals in different international locations,” including that Macron’s feedback left him “puzzled.”
In the meantime, French Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire mentioned that Macron was “completely proper to demand European independence and sovereignty,” whereas the President of the European Council Charles Michel famous “fairly a number of” leaders of EU international locations thought like Macron, although they “wouldn’t say issues the identical method.”
When requested concerning the French president’s feedback on Monday, the US State Division mentioned that France was a long-standing ally and that occasional disagreements didn’t detract from a “deep partnership” with Paris. As for the EU place, a State Division spokesman cited a current speech by the bloc’s president Ursula von der Leyen, which described China as “a nationwide and financial safety menace,” and mentioned there was “immense convergence” between Washington and Brussels on the matter.
