(Amsterdam) French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday that being an “ally” of the United States does not necessarily mean being a “vassal”, fully accepting controversial comments made on Taiwan.
“Being an ally does not mean being a vassal. It’s not because we’re allies […] that we no longer have the right to think for ourselves,” he said at a press conference in Amsterdam.
“France is for the status quo in Taiwan”, it “supports the policy of one China and the search for a peaceful settlement of the situation”, he added.
Emmanuel Macron sparked a wave of misunderstanding in the United States and Europe by calling on the European Union not to follow Washington or Beijing on the question of Taiwan.
Remarks immediately interpreted as a distancing from Washington while the United States has also been very committed to Ukraine since the start of the Russian offensive.
“Macron, who is a friend, is with China licking his ass,” added former US President Donald Trump.
“The position of France and the Europeans is the same for Taiwan: we are for the status quo”, however declared the French president in Amsterdam.
“This policy is constant, it has not changed,” he added.
Mr. Macron also deplored that Donald Trump is contributing to an “escalation”.
“When he was president I didn’t comment on his sentences, I’m not going to do that now that he’s not president anymore,” he said.
France is not uninterested in tensions around Taiwan, a French diplomatic source said earlier on Wednesday, as China conducted military exercises to put pressure on the island.