(DailyVantage.com) – French President Emmanuel Macron has warned Europe against following the United States into a conflict with China over Taiwan, arguing that such a conflict would not be in Europe’s best interests.
Macron made the comments during an interview with Politico and the French newspaper Les Echos on April 9 following his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing.
Macron expressed his disinterest in choosing one side over the other and warned that France, as well as Europe as a whole, should avoid getting caught up in “crises that aren’t ours.” After questioning whether there was any benefit to Europe heightening tensions with China over Taiwan, Macron concluded there was not, before arguing that the “worst thing” Europe could do in the current situation was follow the “American rhythm” and launch head-first into a “Chinese overreaction.”
Pointing to Europe’s failure to end the Russian invasion of Ukraine more than one year on, Macron questioned how Europe could expect different results if it also opposed China over Taiwan.
The French president proposed that Europe should instead follow its own interests and concern itself with European unity so that it could become a world superpower and rival both the United States and China.
On the topic of the US dollar — which has been on the decline as a global force since Russia, China, India, and other countries announced they would start to trade in their own currencies — Macron called on Europe to move away from the currency. He warned that if the conflict between the US and China did break out into a war, Europe maintaining its current dependence on the US dollar could result in European countries becoming “vassals.”
US Republican Florida Senator Marco Rubio condemned Macron’s comments, ridiculed the French president for calling for a European superpower, and called on the European Union to clarify whether Macron spoke for Europe or merely for France. Rubio concluded by warning that if Europe didn’t want to pick sides between the US and China over Taiwan, then the US might decide not to pick sides between Europe and Russia over the war in Ukraine.
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