Macron declared for Europe's Autonomy from the US
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"Europe must reduce its dependence on the United States and avoid being drawn into a confrontation between China and the United States over Taiwan", French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with several media outlets on his way back from a three-day state visit to China.
Speaking to Brussels-based "Politico" and two French journalists after spending about six hours in talks with Chinese President Xi Jinping, Macron recalled his vision of "strategic autonomy" for Europe, which he developed in 2017 at the Sorbonne.
Then he developed the view of a "strong Europe" capable of leading on the world stage with a common political, economic and social model and strategically autonomous from the United States.
Politico quoted him as saying that the "big risk" facing Europe is that it "gets into crises that are not ours, which prevents it from building its strategic autonomy."
"The paradox would be that, panic-stricken, we believe that we are simply followers of America. The question the Europeans have to answer is 'is it in our interest to accelerate (the crisis) in Taiwan?' No. The worse would be to think that we Europeans should become followers of this theme and take a cue from the US agenda and China's overreaction," he said.
"The Europeans cannot solve the crisis in Ukraine; how can we credibly say to Taiwan, 'be careful, if you do something wrong, we will be there'? If you really want to increase tensions, this is the way to do it," says the French president.
"If the tension between the two superpowers heats up... we will not have the time and resources to finance our strategic autonomy and we will become vassals," said Emmanuel Macron...
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