Macron calls for EU 'strategic autonomy'
France's President Emmanuel Macron has reiterated a call to the European Union to implement its stated policy of "strategic autonomy", proposing the bloc could become a "third pole" alongside China and the United States.
In an interview on Sunday with French business daily Les Echo, Macron said: "We don't want to get into a bloc versus bloc logic," adding that Europe "should not be caught up in a disordering of the world and crises that aren't ours".
Macron also underlined that any escalation around Taiwan was not in the EU's interest.
"The question asked of us Europeans is the following: is it in our interest for there to be acceleration on the topic of Taiwan? No."
Macron said he rejected decoupling from China, which is seen by some experts and business people as France wants to build up its ties with China and reduce reliance on the United States.
The French leader, during his three-day state visit to China from April 5 to 7, said he "does not believe" and "in any case does not want to believe" that decoupling from the Chinese economy is already underway, Reuters reported.
Macron warned Europe must not reduce its trade and diplomatic ties with the world's second-largest economy and needs to avoid what some have cast as an "inescapable spiral" of tensions between Beijing and the West, according to Reuters.
Macron's stance was seen by policy analysts as adding content to his "strategic autonomy" which seeks to pursue France, and even the Atlantic region's own interests without heavily depending on one single superpower, such as the US.
Alicja Bachulska, a policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said in an interview with Euronews that the state visit, with over 50 business executives traveling together, suggests economic cooperation with Beijing is still "very high" on the agenda in Paris, also at the level of the whole European Union.
"We have the biggest players, such as Germany and France, and the business circles in these two countries, which have very vast, really, really vast interests in terms of returning to business as usual," said Bachulska. "Europe is not about decoupling, this American-style decoupling."
Boosting economic ties
The bilateral trade value between China and France was worth over $81 billion in 2022, according to data from China's General Administration of Customs. China remains France's largest trading partner in Asia, and France is China's third-largest trading partner in the European Union.
The two countries now agree to boost economic exchanges, with a range of signed deals relating to transport, energy, agriculture, culture, and science sectors being listed in a joint statement issued on the day when Macron concluded his visit.
For example, Airbus, a France-based plane maker, has signed a 160 commercial aircraft purchase deal, which is worth around $20 billion, with China Aviation Supplies Holding Company. The aerospace giant is also set to build its second Chinese assembly line, which is described by CNN as one that could "lead over Boeing".
According to a news article published on April 6 in European Conservative journal, not only Macron but also German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez, who have visited China recently, "insist on" opening dialogue with Beijing so as not to harm their trade relations, while the US is taking a tough stance.
"I think we cannot just turn our backs to China and try to ignore it. It is a key trading partner, a very large player," Spanish Economy Minister Nadia Calvino said during a discussion hosted by the Brookings Institution think tank in Washington.
The French business community also welcomed Macron's move. "People don't know this country well, a lot of the things being said are untrue," Thierry de La Tour d'Artaise, CEO of French appliance group SEB, told Reuters. "I don't think the Americans ask for our opinion when they travel here, so it's very good for France to do its things and bear responsibility for it."
Agencies contributed to this story.
