French President Emmanuel Macron has called on Europe not to "enter into the logic of bloc-for-bloc," stressing that it should not be "subservient" to the United States or China in relation to Taiwan.
Macron said in an interview with French economic newspaper Les Echos published on Sunday that "the worst thing is to think that we Europeans should be followers" on the Taiwan issue and "adapt to the American rhythm and the exaggerated Chinese reaction."
He called on Europe to "wake up", adding that "our priority is not to adapt to the agenda of others in different regions of the world".
"Why should we follow the rhythm chosen by others? At some point, we have to ask ourselves the question of where our interest lies (...) "We don't want to get into the block-for-block logic."
On Friday, Macron discussed with his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping the situation in Taiwan.
China began holding military exercises after a meeting between Taiwan's president and U.S. House of Representatives Speaker Kevin McCarthy on Wednesday in California, to which Beijing promised to respond with "firm and strong" measures.
"Honest meeting"
Friday's meeting between Macron and Xi was "intense and frank," the Elysee said, conveying Macron's keen interest in "the accumulation of tensions in the region."
In his interview with Leseco, the French president called for "strategic independence" to be the "battle of Europe," warning that the "acceleration of the bilateral monopoly" of Sino-US could lead to the loss of "time and means to finance" this "strategic independence."
"We will become vassals, while we are capable of being the third pole if we have a few years to establish it," he said.
"The contradiction lies in establishing elements of genuine European strategic autonomy while at the same time following American policy," he said.
He pointed out that he "won the ideological battle" in the European Union, as "5 years ago, we used to say that European sovereignty does not exist."
Macron called for "strengthening the defence industry" and "accelerating the fight for nuclear and renewable energies" on the continent.