Finance Minister Bruno Le Maire said on Tuesday that French President Emmanuel Macron was right to distance himself from Washington’s aggressive approaches to China. But so far, Macron’s demands for European “autonomy” have been only verbal.
While in China last week, Macron argued in an interview with Politico that Europe should not “take inspiration from the American agenda” and instead remain impartial towards Taiwan. If Europe “is caught in crises that are not ours”, he said, “Europe is at great risk”.
The Mayor said on Tuesday that Macron “was perfectly right to demand European independence and sovereignty as he has done since 2017”. We are undoubtedly American allies, he continued. “We have a lot of similar economic interests and we have the same ideals. However, just because we support the United States doesn’t mean we have to oppose China.
Paris has a financial incentive to stay out of a dispute with Beijing. Seven major French companies, including Airbus, energy company EDF and shipbuilder CMA-CGM, signed or extended contracts with Chinese companies during Macron’s visit.
The Mayor said: “We opt for the path of conversation. Isn’t it better than a logic of conflict escalation and confrontation of all kinds?
Macron has made a big deal of reducing Europe’s dependence on the United States, especially in the field of defence, since he began his first term in 2017. The French president, however, has stopped criticizing NATO once the Russian military incursion into Ukraine began. Last year. Since then, France has sided with the United States in supplying Kiev with weapons and ammunition while supporting EU sanctions against Moscow, even as the resulting economic damage to France has fueled the public disturbances.
Macron’s efforts to portray himself as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine have also failed. The French president’s telephone contacts with Vladimir Putin, his Russian counterpart, were unsuccessful, and the Kremlin previously rejected a supposed French peace plan.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday that Paris “can hardly aspire to mediate at this time, because Paris is actually siding with one of the participants in the conflict,” adding that France is ” directly and indirectly”. involved on the Ukrainian side.