It is a speech always awaited. President Emmanuel Macron presented this Monday, January 6 in Paris to French ambassadors his foreign policy priorities in 2025. From regime change in Syria to the war in Ukraine via Elon Musk’s “new reactionary international”, a look back at the main declarations of the Head of State in a context of multiple international crises.
Ukrainians must “conduct realistic discussions on territorial issues”
Emmanuel Macron affirmed that the Ukrainians should “conduct realistic discussions on territorial issues” to find a settlement to the conflict caused by the Russian invasion in 2022, in a context unfavorable to kyiv on the ground.
The Europeans will nevertheless have to “build security guarantees” for Ukraine, said the French president. “The United States of America has to help us change the nature of the situation and convince Russia to come to the negotiating table,” he also stressed, adding that there will be “no “quick and easy solution” to resolve the conflict which will enter its fourth year next February.
Elon Musk and the “new reactionary international”
The French president accused, without mentioning him by name, the boss of X, the billionaire Elon Musk, of supporting “a new reactionary international” and of interference in the elections, particularly in Germany.
“Ten years ago, if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new reactionary international movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany? Who would have imagined it?” President Macron, in reference to the American billionaire’s continued support for the German far-right party, the AfD.
Donald Trump “knows that he has a solid ally in France”
Donald Trump “knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally whom he does not disesteem”, “who believes in Europe” and has a “lucid ambition” for the transatlantic relationship, declared Emmanuel Macron to two weeks of his arrival at the White House.
“From 2016 to 2020, France knew how to work with President Trump,” underlined the French head of state before the return of the populist tribune. “If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance of being respected by the United States of America of President Trump”, “it is up to us to know how to cooperate with the choice that was made by the people American,” he added.
In Syria, “look without naivety” at the new regime
Emmanuel Macron called for “looking at the change of regime in Syria without naivety”, and promised not to abandon the Kurdish fighters allied with the West in the fight against terrorism.
France will support “over the long term” the transition in favor of “a sovereign Syria, free and respectful of its ethnic, political and confessional plurality”, he affirmed, pledging to remain “loyal” to the “combatants of freedom, like the Kurds” who fight terrorism and in particular the jihadist organization Islamic State.
On Mercosur, “mass is not said”
The French president assured that the “mass is not said” regarding the conclusion of the controversial trade agreement between the European Union and the South American countries of Mercosur. “We will continue to forcefully defend the coherence of our commitments,” he added.
“Go much faster and much stronger” on European defense
Europeans must move “much faster and much stronger” to strengthen their defense industry in the face of rising threats, said Emmanuel Macron. “The question is whether Europeans want, for the next 20 years, to produce what will be necessary for their security or not”, because “if we depend on the American industrial and technological defense base, then we will have cruel dilemmas and culpable strategic dependencies,” he insisted.
“We forgot to say thank you” in Africa in the face of terrorism
France was “right” to intervene militarily in Africa “against terrorism since 2013”, but African leaders “forgot to say thank you to us”, declared Emmanuel Macron, estimating that “none of them would be today with a sovereign country if the French army had not been deployed. “It doesn’t matter, it will come with time,” quipped the French president. “No, France is not in decline in Africa, it is simply lucid, it is reorganizing itself,” he argued.
A “very significant risk” of “regression” of the climate agenda
Emmanuel Macron warned of a “very significant risk” of “regression” in the collective effort to protect the environment and the fight against global warming with the return of Donald Trump to the White House.
“Both President Trump threatens to withdraw from these (environmental) agreements and uninhibitedly resumes massive production of fossil fuels,” he noted. “And so there is a very significant risk of a regression in our agenda in the coming months,” he warned.