Macron insists France won’t be US ‘vassal’ on Taiwan
- The president stood by his controversial comments on the island, says being a US ally did not mean the French didn’t have ‘the right to think for ourselves’
- Macron said Paris is ‘for the status quo in Taiwan’ and supported the search for a peaceful resolution to the situation
French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday stood by his controversial comments on Taiwan, saying that being a US ally did not mean being a “vassal”.
Macron – wrapping up a state visit to the Netherlands during which he has also faced protests over pension reforms – said France still backed the “status quo” on Taiwan.
But the French president appeared to stick by remarks in an interview at the weekend, in which he said Europe should not be a “follower” of either Washington or Beijing or get caught up in any escalation.
“Being an ally does not mean being a vassal … doesn’t mean that we don’t have the right to think for ourselves,” Macron told a press conference in Amsterdam with Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte.
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Macron, who visited China last week, said that French and European policy on Taiwan “has not changed” despite the furore over his remarks in an interview with Politico and Les Echos in which he backed Europe’s strategic autonomy.
