Macron touts 'positive new' Asia-Europe alliance amid US-China rivalry

French President Emmanuel Macron urged Asia and Europe to work together in a new coalition based on common principles to push back against the inevitability of being caught between global superpowers.

- Clement Tan

Singling out the China-US rivalry as the biggest risk confronting the world, the French leader said he wants to be able to cooperate with the US at the same time as compete with but not confront China—while adopting a "demanding approach" that puts France's interests first.

In expanding on the French doctrines of "strategic autonomy" and "freedom of sovereignty" to a gathering of global leaders at a pre-eminent security forum in the Asia-Pacific, President Macron sketched out a plausible "third way" for Europe and the rest of Asia amid significant shifts in the world order and a world beset by multiple crises.

"The time for non-alignment has undoubtedly passed, but the time for coalitions of action has come and requires that countries capable of acting together give themselves every means to do so," Mr Macron said in his keynote address at the 22nd Shangri-La Dialogue on May 30.

"Let's build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles.

"Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers," the leader of Europe's second-largest economy added.

Mr Macron called upon Asian countries, particularly India, and members of the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership to work together.

"Let's work in an open way, the genuine way," he said. "But let's work very closely on defence, security and all the building blocks of our value chains."