SINGAPORE (Reuters) -French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that division between the two superpowers, the United States and China, is the main risk currently confronting the world as he emphasized the need for building new coalitions between Paris and partners in the Indo-Pacific.
Macron is visiting the region as France and the European Union aim to strengthen their commercial ties in Asia to offset uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff measures.
“I will be clear, 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,” said Macron, who was speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue, Asia’s premier defence forum, alongside a two-day state visit to Singapore.
The French president said Asia and Europe have a common interest in preventing the disintegration of the global order.
“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,” Macron said.
Macron is following leaders of China, Japan and other European countries in visiting the region in recent weeks, in a sign of south east Asia’s strategic importance amid uncertainties on global supply chains and trade.
(Reporting by Fanny Potkin, Xinghui Kok, Idrees Ali; Editing by Shri Navaratnam)
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