At the Shangri-La Dialogue, French President Emmanuel Macron, the first European head of state and the first leader from one of the five permanent members of the United Nations Security Council to deliver the keynote address to this premier security forum in the Indo-Pacific, made an appeal to Asian countries to build a new alliance with Europe while staying firm on China.
He presented a vision that he has consistently held since taking office in 2017 — restoring France and Europe's global influence and relevance amid the great power competition through “strategic autonomy” — a term he repeated more than 10 times in his speech. This ambition, termed by some analysts as the "Macron Doctrine," is based on a sense of deep crisis since the establishment of the post-1945 world order.
In Singapore, he has anchored his vision in both the Gaullist legacy and Asian strategic culture. He recalled Gen. de Gaulle's historic 1966 speech in Phnom Penh, where the general championed the independence of nations, particularly Cambodia, within the Cold War context. Macron also referenced the 70th anniversary of the Bandung Conference, the birthplace of the Non-Aligned Movement.
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