Macron Takes Jabs at Impulsive Superpowers; Offers French Alternative

Between jabs at US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students on May 27 that "on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change."

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HANOI - Between jabs at US President Donald Trump's trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing's assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students on May 27 that "on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change."

Mr. Macron was in Vietnam as part of a six-day South-east Asian tour, as he tries to pitch his offer of a "third way" between the United States and China to a region caught up in a confrontation between the two.

On May 27, he departed Hanoi for Indonesia, the next stop on his trip, which will also include Singapore.

Earlier, he spoke to a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, who listened through translation headsets.

"The conflict between China and the United States of America is a geopolitical fact that casts the shadow of risk of a much larger conflict in this important region," he told them.