Emmanuel Macron, virulent speech against Trump's policy. “We reject the new colonialism and the new imperialism” but “we also reject vassalage”

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday vehemently denounced the “new colonialism and the new imperialism” in international relations, targeting in particular the foreign policy of Donald Trump, who is “stepping away” from certain allies and “liberating himself from international rules”, Reuters and AFP write.

French President Emmanuel Macron criticized the Trump administration, saying it defied the rules-based global order when it ousted Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and renewed threats to annex Greenland.

While he criticized both China and its “increasingly uninhibited trade aggression” and Russia, a “destabilizing power” in Ukraine, his comments about the United States were the most important.

“The United States is a global power that is gradually distancing itself from some of its allies and freeing itself from the international rules it once promoted,” Macron said in his annual foreign policy address.

Macron used the speech to paint a picture of predatory global powers seeking to divide the world into spheres of influence, with the US dominating the Western Hemisphere under the so-called “Donroe Doctrine”.

“We are evolving into a world of great powers, where there is a real temptation to divide the world,” he said. “What has happened in recent months, and sometimes in recent days, does not diminish this assessment,” Macron added.

“We also reject vassalage and defeatism”

In his annual speech to French ambassadors, Macron called for what he called an “effective multilateralism” in response to this “world in disarray”.

“We reject the new colonialism and the new imperialism,” but “we also reject vassalage and defeatism,” the French leader said.

The French president was initially criticized for his conciliatory reaction to Maduro's ouster. He wrote that Venezuela “can only rejoice” at his departure, without mentioning whether the US method violated international law.

In his speech on Thursday, Macron accused the US of violating trade rules and “some security elements”.

The French president did not specifically mention Venezuela or Greenland, although both are major concerns for Paris, which is helping to craft a European response to Trump's threats against the self-governing Danish territory.

“We are here to act!”

A year ago, the head of state harshly criticized a “reactionary international” supported by billionaire Elon Musk, but defended the need for France and Europe to “know how to cooperate” with Donald Trump.

This year, he went further in criticizing Trumpist diplomacy, but without advocating for breaking relations with the world's first power, AFP observes.

He urged his diplomats not to be content to be “commentators” of what “everyone else is doing”, “spectators of what is falling apart”.

“It's the exact opposite! We're not here to comment, we're here to act!” he stressed.

With France having just taken over the presidency of the G7 (which also brings together the United States, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Japan and Canada), he reaffirmed his desire to turn this forum into an opportunity to combat “world imbalances” in a “cooperative” way, especially with China.

He also warned that the G7 must not become “an anti-BRICS club”, the format that brings together the “big emerging countries” such as Brazil, Russia, India or China.

On the contrary, he said he wants the June G7 summit in Evian (French Alps) to be an opportunity to try to achieve “together” with emerging countries “a reform of world governance” and of the UN, which has become a real recurring theme.