Macron at the UN: "The world cannot be boiled down to the rivalry between China and the United States"

Faced with the weakening of international cooperation, aggravated by the Covid-19, Emmanuel Macron urged the international community on Tuesday to act collectively so as not to be the “sorry spectator” of the rivalry between Washington and Beijing.

"The world as it is today cannot be boiled down to the rivalry between China and the United States, regardless of the global weight of these two great powers," said the French president in his video address nearly 45 minutes at the 75th UN General Assembly.

For him, the answer lies, more than ever, in "international cooperation" which, although "difficult" is "objectively imperative".

"Multilateralism is not just an act of faith, it is an operational necessity," he insisted, reaffirming the message he has carried in major international meetings since taking office in 2017. Multilateralism which governed the post-war world is crumbling under the assaults in particular of the United States of Donald Trump and China, two hyperpowers which are trying to get rid of this framework.

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He regrets the paralysis of the UN Security Council 

Speaking before Emmanuel Macron, Donald Trump has again strongly attacked Beijing, while Xi Jinping has, without citing the United States, warned against "the trap of a clash of civilizations".

The context of the health crisis requires "an electric shock", insisted Emmanuel Macron.

Because "all the fractures that pre-existed the pandemic - the hegemonic shock of the powers, the questioning of multilateralism or its instrumentalisation, the trampling of international law - have only accelerated and deepened thanks to the global destabilization created "by the virus.

He thus regretted the paralysis of the Security Council in the face of the health crisis because these two countries "preferred to collective efficiency the display of their rivalry", adding that no country could face the challenges of the world alone and that effective multilateralism was an "operational necessity".

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Macron defends the European Union 

But, according to him, "we are not collectively condemned to a pas de deux which would reduce us to being nothing but the sorry spectators of a collective impotence. We have room for maneuver, to us to use them".

Foremost among these are the international organizations, "which we so badly need", and the driving role that Europe must play, which it sees as a stronger emerging from the crisis.

"The European Union, many of which predicted division and impotence, has taken, thanks to the crisis, a historic step towards unity, sovereignty and solidarity," said Emmanuel Macron.

He cites the initiatives to make the vaccine against the Covid-19 a "common good" and to reduce the debt of the poorest countries, especially in Africa, two projects particularly supported by Paris.