Macron Calls on Countries to Resist US, China Dominance

(MENAFN) French President Emmanuel Macron issued a sweeping call Friday for nations across the globe to resist becoming subordinate to either Washington or Beijing, escalating his public break with US President Donald Trump over the conflicts in Iran and the future of NATO.

Speaking from Yonsei University during a state visit to South Korea, Macron appealed directly to a roster of major democratic economies — including South Korea, Japan, Brazil, India, Australia, and Canada — to coalesce around a shared agenda anchored in international law, democratic governance, and climate commitments.

“During decades, we had a so-called stability based on this international order and the few certainties we had. It’s up and down now. We should not just be passive in this new disorder. We have to build a new order,” Macron told the assembled audience.

He sharpened his message further, drawing a direct line between the two dominant global powers and the risks they pose to smaller nations:

“Our objective is not to be the vassals of two hegemonic powers… We don’t want to depend on the dominance of, let’s say, China, (and) we don’t want to be too exposed to the unpredictability of the US.”

The remarks come amid an increasingly open rift between Macron and Trump, after the US president dismissed NATO as a “paper tiger” when European allies declined to participate in efforts to unblock the Strait of Hormuz. France has also withheld support for the US-Israeli military campaign against Iran.

Pushing back against the broader logic of military escalation in the region, Macron stated: “I don’t believe that we will fix the situation just by bombing or by military operations.”

France’s posture hardened further at the United Nations, where, according to the New York Times, Paris joined Moscow and Beijing in blocking a UN Security Council resolution that sought to authorize military force against Iran over the Hormuz dispute. That vote, initially slated for Friday, has since been postponed.

The remarks underscore a broader strategic repositioning by France under Macron, who has sharply accelerated Paris’s defense investments in recent years, channeling resources into missile systems, drone technology, and submarine capabilities. As recently as last month, Macron signaled a willingness to extend France’s nuclear deterrent to cover Germany and select other European allies.

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