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 stated on Wednesday, defending his feedback about “strategic autonomy” of the EU relating to 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 suitable to suppose for ourselves,” Macron stated in Amsterdam, at a joint press convention with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
Requested for the French place on Taiwan, Macron stated that Paris helps the established order, which means the “One China coverage and the seek for a peaceable decision to the state of affairs.”
Getting 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 turn into 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 instructed Washington would possibly 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 mustn’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 stated 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 manner.”
When requested concerning the French president’s feedback on Monday, the US State Division stated 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 risk,” and stated there was “immense convergence” between Washington and Brussels on the matter.
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