Macron calls on Europe, Asia to prepare for a U.S.-China showdown

SINGAPORE — French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on Europe and Asia to fortify coalition and avoid being caught in the intensifying rift between the U.S. and China.

Addressing the annual defense forum Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, Macron urged Indo-Pacific nations’ prime ministers and defense ministers in the audience to establish a “new coalition” to counter the “constraints and side effects” stemming from the growing U.S.-China rivalry.

“France is a friend and an ally of the United States, and is a friend, and we do cooperate — even if sometimes we disagree and compete — with China,” Macron said, adding that the country does so while adhering to a “demanding approach of our own interests.”

The “division between the two superpowers” is the main risk confronting the world, Macron said.

Macron’s speech comes amid a regional tour that has also taken him to Vietnam and Indonesia. The European leader has sought to bolster France’s defense cooperation with other nations, worried about becoming collateral damage in the U.S.-China trade war and amid continued geopolitical disputes with Beijing.

In Jakarta earlier this week, Macron and his counterpart Prabowo Subianto signed a preliminary defense pact that could see Indonesia purchase more French weaponry, including Rafale fighter jets and Scorpene submarines. France and Vietnam also signed deals on Airbus planes, defense and other pacts, worth over $10 billion.

“ASEAN and Europe are impacted by the unpredictability of the new tariff approach and the end of a rule-based order for trade,” Macron said, warning that this will impact the nations’ economy and their ability to fund the defense efforts.

Macron’s renewed engagement with the region came as bilateral tensions between China and the U.S. are ratcheting up again, despite the recent tariff thaw.

The Trump administration has threatened to “aggressively” revoke visas for Chinese students while restricting the sale of chip design software to China. Beijing has also kept a firm grip on rare earths exports to the U.S.

Asia and Europe have a common interest in preventing the disintegration of the global order and beefing up defense against “revisionist” countries that seek to control areas, from the fringe of Europe and the archipelagos in the South China Sea, Macron said, taking subtle swipes at Beijing’s actions in the disputed waters.

“If we consider that Russia could be allowed to take a part of the territory of Ukraine without any restriction, without any constraint, without any reaction of the global order, how would you phrase what could happen in Taiwan? What will you do the day something happened [in the Philippines?]” the president said.

China and Philippine have been locked in a standoff over disputed islands and reefs over the past few years. Manila deploys missions to supply a small garrison of troops living aboard an aging warship that was deliberately run aground in 1999 to protect its maritime claims.

Beijing has claimed almost all of the South China Sea as its waters, despite a 2016 ruling by the Permanent Court of Arbitration that said China’s claim has no basis under international law. China has refused to recognize that outcome.

There’s also Taiwan, which China has claimed as its own territory, and has been flexing its military muscle by sending aircraft and naval vessels surrounding the democratically governed island.

China’s Defense Minister Dong Jun did not attend the summit this year and Beijing has sent a lower-level delegation from the National Defense University of the People’s Liberation Army. The defense minister, at the Shangri-La Dialogue last year, warned that any forces aimed at separating Taiwan from China would face “self-destruction” and stressed it as “the core of our core interest.”