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Tag: Emmanuel Macron

  • As France burns, Macron blames social media for fanning the flames

    As France burns, Macron blames social media for fanning the flames

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    PARIS — French rioters have set the country on fire and Emmanuel Macron is pointing the finger at TikTok and Snapchat for pouring gasoline on the inferno.

    In the past three days, violent protests erupted across France after a police officer in a Paris suburb shot and killed 17-year-old Nahel M., who was of North African descent. Rioters targeted public buildings, transport systems and shops with projectiles and Molotov cocktails, leaving 249 members of law enforcement injured and 875 people arrested. 

    Unlike the deadly outbreak of violence in 2005, the turmoil — which has led to public transportation shutdowns, concert cancelations and armored vehicles being deployed across the country — can be documented in real time, shared online and seen by tens of thousands on social media platforms such as TikTok, Snapchat and Twitter. 

    That online phenomenon is worrying France’s political leaders, who have been scurrying to find solutions as the unrest shows no sign of fizzling out.

    “We’ve seen violent gatherings organized on several [social media platforms] — but also a kind of mimicry of violence,” French President Emmanuel Macron said Friday after a government crisis meeting. He accused younger rioters of exiting reality and “living the video games that have intoxicated them.”

    The French president wants tech companies to delete violent content and provide law enforcement with the identity of protesters who use social media to stoke — and exacerbate — the disorder. “I expect these platforms to be responsible,” he said. 

    According to research by France’s most-watched news channel BFM, TikTok and Snapchat were flooded Friday morning with videos from the rioting and looting across France. On TikTok, hashtags linked to the riots were pushed by the platform’s algorithm. Police officials also told BFM some protesters coordinate and communicate in real time through messaging services on WhatsApp and Telegram via online tools that did not exist in 2005, when riots left hundreds of public buildings damaged and thousands of cars burned.

    The government is scheduled to meet with social media platforms Friday evening, where company executives will be pressed to cooperate.

    Some, however, say social media platforms are unfairly blamed by grandstanding politicians who should focus their attention elsewhere.

    On Friday, the U.N.’s human rights office weighed in, saying France needs to address “issues of racism and discrimination in law enforcement,” referring to the killing of the teenager.

    Tech has long been used to coordinate demonstrations and protests, political communications expert Philippe Moreau Chevrolet told POLITICO, adding that the government would be “terribly out of touch” to respond to the crisis by focusing on tech companies and video games.

    “Text messages used to be accused [of facilitating riots], now it’s social networks. Yellow Vests protests were blamed on Facebook,” Moreau Chevrolet said.

    Two sides of the coin

    But the role of online platforms goes beyond showcasing fires and looting, and helping rioters get organized. This week’s violent unrest began with a video that was, of course, posted on social media.

    “There’s clearly been a change, with more and more people adopting the reflex of filming the police. Above all, the activists’ community is now able to quickly and widely circulate the videos,” said Magda Boutros, a sociology scholar at the University of Washington who studied activism against police violence in France.

    When a police officer shot and killed Nahel M. (the name by which he has been identified publicly) on Tuesday, media reports originally relied on law enforcement sources claiming a driver threatened the police officer’s life. But a video, filmed by a bystander and posted on Twitter, showed a different story: Two cops stood next to a car and one shot the driver at close range.

    Another recent incident (crucially, not filmed) showed the power of social media to hold violent police officers accountable and the ability to set a country on fire — or not.

    Two weeks ago, a teenager died in similar circumstances as Nahel M. in the Charente region of western France. The young man was reportedly shot dead by a police officer for refusing to comply.

    That went relatively unnoticed, explained former French MP Thomas Mesnier, because Charente is in a more remote area compared to the dense banlieues of the French capital.

    It also went unnoticed, Mesnier said, because “there was no video that went viral on social networks, participating in and reinforcing people’s emotions and sense of dread.”

    Elisa Bertholomey contributed reporting.

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    POLITICO Europe

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  • Macron postpones state visit to Germany to deal with violent riots across France

    Macron postpones state visit to Germany to deal with violent riots across France

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    French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday postponed a long-planned state visit to Germany to deal with the worsening turmoil in France, in a clear sign of the gravity of the violent protests gripping the country.

    The killing of a 17-year-old of North African descent by a police officer on Tuesday has thrown France into chaos, sparking violent demonstrations in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teen was shot. The violence has spread to other big cities.

    According to the latest estimates by France’s Interior Ministry, up to 1,300 rioters were arrested in the night between Friday and Saturday.

    The Élysée confirmed that Macron and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier spoke on the phone on Saturday, agreeing to postpone the high-level visit. “Given the internal situation, the president has indicated that he wishes to be able to stay in France for the next few days,” according to a statement.

    “The two presidents therefore agreed to postpone the visit to Germany to a later date,” it added.

    No new date for the visit seems to have been floated for the time being.

    The state visit, which was scheduled for July 2-4, was meant to boost Franco-German relations and have the leaders discuss burning issues ranging from energy policy to China. It would also have marked the first time a French president paid a state visit to Germany since Jacques Chirac visited Berlin in 2000.

    Escalating clashes between rioters and police had already forced Macron to accelerate his departure from the European Council meeting in Brussels on Friday.

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    Federica Di Sario

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  • As Nanterre mourns Nahel, locals fear violence will continue

    As Nanterre mourns Nahel, locals fear violence will continue

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    NANTERRE, France — Hundreds gathered on a rainy Saturday next to the Ibn Badis Mosque. The gray, modern building stands just a few blocks from where Nahel, shot dead by the police four days ago, lived.

    The teen’s white coffin entered the mosque as long queues of men and women waited on both sides to pay their respects in a very tense atmosphere.

    The killing of the 17-year-old unleashed days of violent demonstrations in the once quiet suburban town, reigniting long-simmering tensions between the youth and the police, accused of brutality and racial discrimination.

    Amira, 39 and mother of a young boy, said she came to denounce “the violence of some police officers” and to support “the uprising” of suburban people during the last few days.

    “All the mothers that you can see here — we identify with what happened to Nahel. What this police officer did was wrong. He could have shot the wheel of Nahel’s car, or his leg. … We wouldn’t see all that,” she added.

    Violent outbursts that quickly spread across the country have raised the specter of riots that rocked French suburbs for weeks in 2005 after two young men died trying to escape the police. In the weeks of riots that followed, youths in the suburbs fought running battles with police. Like Nahel, the young men were from immigrant backgrounds, and their deaths fomented a sense of injustice among many.

    “Nothing has changed,” said Amira, referring to the 2005 uprising.

    Right next to the mosque, the public finance center has broken windows and hundreds of half-burned empty tax declarations litter the floor in front of the building. Locals are looking for a sense of unity after days of urban rioting. But some fear the cycle of protests and violence could be unstoppable.

    “We know when it all began, but we don’t know when it will stop,” says Philippe, 52-year-old who has lived here for over a decade.

    The night before, he saw a bus burn up in his street, leaving a new visible scar in the city already marked by days of riots and fires set by protesters at night.

    Rioters have especially targeted public buildings. The city’s post office has been tagged with Nahel’s name, as have many other blocks. 

    Fear of far right

    Despite the deployment of massive police force, violent rioting shows no sign of easing after four days.

    President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called for parents to lean in and keep their children indoors, as police reported that many minors are among rioters.

    The killing of the 17-year-old unleashed days of violent demonstrations in the once quiet suburban town | Océane Herrero for POLITICO

    “My kids are adults now, but when they were young, I never let them hang out at night like that,” says Nassira, a 64-year-old retired housekeeper and a mother of three. At the mosque, she adds that she “prays to God everyday that young people go back home” at night, as she fears the political consequences of the uprising, with a possible rise of the far right. 

    The perimeter of the mosque has been secured by mediators, unarmed city hall employees who aim to create conditions of dialogue with locals, instead of the police, in an effort to avoid further tensions. For the same reason, photos and videos were strongly discouraged by organizers. A French photographer was assaulted the night before by protesters in Nanterre. 

    In a press release, the lawyers for Nahel’s family asked journalists to stay away from the ceremony in order to avoid “media interference” at the funeral.

    “Nahel’s mother is in mourning and wants to bury her son,” Abdelmadjid Benamara, one of the three lawyers, told POLITICO on Friday. “We haven’t talked with her yet about the protests, the public reactions or the political reactions.” 

    Despite this wish to have a “day of prayer for the family,” many locals don’t believe the funeral will suffice to calm the tensions and they fear a resurgence of clashes Saturday night.

    Nahel’s death has rekindled the debate around police brutality in the country, which activists have long claimed disproportionately affects people of color and those living in historically disadvantaged neighborhoods. The use of ethnic statistics is strictly restricted in France, but according to a 2017 study by a French human rights watchdog, young men perceived as Black or Arab are much more likely to be stopped by police than their peers.

    On Friday, Belkhir Belhaddad, an MP for Macron’s Renaissance party, called for a rethink of the country’s strict restrictions on the collection of ethnic statistics that he called a “taboo.”

    “We’re unable to truly measure the extent of the damage caused by ethnic discrimination. If we can’t measure it, we can’t tackle it,” he said, adding that he had faced racism himself as an MP of Algerian descent.

    Next to the Nanterre-préfecture subway stop, a tag reads “Justice for Nahel.”

    Below is a half-erased quote from former French President Charles de Gaulle: “When France succeeds, all its children see their chances increase.” (“Quand la France réussit, tous ses enfants voient grandir leurs chances”).

    Paul de Villepin contributed reporting.

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    Océane Herrero

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  • France arrests nearly 1,000 rioters in fourth night of violence

    France arrests nearly 1,000 rioters in fourth night of violence

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    Nearly 1,000 rioters were arrested last night for taking part in the most violent protests France has experienced in years, according to estimates by Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin.

    The killing of a 17-year-old of Algerian and Moroccan descent by a police officer on Tuesday unleashed violent demonstrations in the Paris suburb of Nanterre, where the teen was shot. The violence then spread across the entire country and its main cities.

    The shooting of the teen, identified as Nahel M., reignited long-simmering tensions between the youth of the banlieues – typically disadvantaged and multi-ethnic neighborhoods — and the police, accused of brutality and racial discrimination.

    Nahel’s funeral is scheduled to take place at 2 p.m. on Saturday in Nanterre, with authorities tensing for more demonstrations.

    To address the turmoil, France deployed 45,000 police and gendarmes across all major cities on Friday night, of which 5,000 were tasked with patrolling Paris. Authorities also set curfews around the capital, banned public gatherings in certain municipalities and halted all bus and tram services after 9 p.m.

    Despite the massive security efforts, the unrest doesn’t seem to be calming down, with public buildings, hotels, stores and cars continuing to be targeted and set ablaze. The Interior Ministry said early Saturday that 1,350 vehicles and 234 buildings were torched overnight, plus 2,560 incidents of fire set in public spaces, AFP reported.

    Darmanin said that 200 police officers have been injured since the start of the rioting.

    French President Emmanuel Macron said the killing of the teenager was “inexplicable” and “inexcusable,” although he also promptly blamed social media for spreading violent content and stoking the violence after the tragic event.

    “We’ve seen violent gatherings organized on several [social media platforms] — but also a kind of mimicry of violence,” Macron said on Friday, accusing younger rioters of “living the video games that have intoxicated them.”

    Events including two concerts at the Stade de France on the outskirts of Paris were cancelled. Tour de France organizers said they were ready to adapt to any situation when the race enters the country on Monday after starting in the Spanish city of Bilbao, Reuters reported.

    Religious leaders, including Chems-Eddine Hafiz, the rector of the Grand Mosque of Paris, called for the violence to stop.

    France fears a repeat of the civil unrest in 2005, when three weeks of riots rocked the country after two teenagers of African origins were electrocuted in a power substation while trying to escape the police.

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    Federica Di Sario

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  • The US wants Europe to buy American weapons; the EU has other ideas

    The US wants Europe to buy American weapons; the EU has other ideas

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    This article is part of the Europe’s strategic impotence Special Report.

    At NATO summit after NATO summit, European leaders get a clear public message from Washington — increase spending on defense.

    In private, there’s another message that’s just as clear — make sure a lot of that extra spending goes on U.S. weapons.

    European leaders are resisting.

    “We must develop a genuinely European defense technological and industrial base in all interested countries, and deploy fully sovereign equipment at European level,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the GLOBSEC conference in Bratislava last month.

    The decades of cajoling from Washington are paying off. Although most EU countries aren’t yet meeting NATO’s target of spending 2 percent of GDP on defense, the alliance has seen eight years of steady spending increases. In 2022, spending by European countries was up by 13 percent to $345 billion — almost a third higher than a decade ago — much of it a reaction to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

    Now the question is how that money will be spent.

    The U.S. wants to ensure that European countries — which already spend about half of their defense purchasing on American kit — don’t make a radical switch to spending more of that money at home. 

    Some European leaders are hoping that’s exactly what happens, but it’s an open question whether the Continent’s defense industry can make that happen. 

    “Traditionally, there was a suspicion about a change in Europe’s defense capabilities which dates back more than 25 years,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia, Eurasia Program at the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies. “What direction would the EU go, would it mean the EU would decouple from NATO, what would the impact be on U.S. defense industrial policy?” 

    Buying at home

    The current tensions in Brussels are over whether new EU-wide defense policy should be limited to EU companies — a position driven by Macron and Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton, a Frenchman. That confirms suspicions stateside about European protectionism when it comes to allowing U.S. companies to compete for EU contracts. 

    “Our plan is to directly support, with EU money, the effort to ramp up our defense industry, and this for Ukraine and for our own security,” Breton said last month. 

    Internal Market Commissioner Thierry Breton wants new EU-wide defense policy to be limited to EU companies | Olivier Hoslet/AFP via Getty Images

    But there’s an uncomfortable fact for the backers of European strategic autonomy: When it comes to arms, Europe still depends on the U.S. 

    While European companies have deep expertise in defense — building everything from France’s Rafale fighter to Germany’s Leopard tank and Poland’s man-portable Piorun air-defense system — the scale of the U.S. arms industry, as well as its technological innovation, makes it attractive for European weapons buyers. 

    The most common big-ticket item is Lockheed Martin’s F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, at a cost of $80 million a pop. There is also an immediate surge in demand for off-the-shelf items like shoulder-fired missiles and artillery shells.

    “Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, European states want to import more arms, faster,” said a report by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI).

    Buying abroad

    The war in Ukraine has underscored the dominance of the U.S. defense industry. 

    A host of European countries are buying Javelin anti-tank missiles produced by Raytheon and Lockheed Martin; Poland this year signed a $1.4 billion deal to buy 116 M1A1 Abrams tanks, as well as another $10 billion agreement to buy High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems produced by Lockheed Martin; Slovakia is buying F-16 fighters, while Romania is in talks to buy F-35s.

    Those deals are raising fears in Europe over whether they can wean themselves off of U.S. defense suppliers. In one example, France and Germany worry about Spain’s intentions as it kicks the tires on F-35s while also being a partner in developing the European Future Combat Air System jet fighter.

    But the need to restock weapons depots and continue shipping materiel to Ukraine is urgent, and after decades of contraction, the Continent’s defense industry is having a difficult time adjusting.

    “Our European allies and partners, they’ve never experienced anything like this,” said a senior U.S. Defense Department official, referring to the spasm of spending brought on by Russia’s invasion. The official was granted anonymity to discuss the situation. “They don’t yet have the defense production authorities they need [to move quickly] and they’ve really been looking to us to try to get a handle on how they can increase production, and I think they’re learning a lot from us.” 

    To help Europe get there, the United States has expanded the number of bilateral security supply arrangements it has with foreign partners since the Russian invasion, signing new agreements with Latvia, Denmark, Japan and Israel since October. These allow countries to more quickly and easily sell and trade defense-related goods and services. 

    The Biden administration also signed an administrative arrangement with the European Union in late April to establish working groups on supply-chain issues, while giving both sides a seat at the table in internal meetings at the European Defence Agency and the Pentagon. 

    But there are limits to how far and how fast both sides are able and willing to go. 

    In the near term, capacity issues and political will means the rhetorical sea change in EU military spending is unlikely to make a huge dent in U.S. military industrial policy. 

    While the past 18 months have seen a huge spike in defense budgets — Germany announced a  special debt-financed fund worth €100 billion after the Russian invasion of Ukraine; Poland’s defense expenditure is set to reach 4 percent of GDP this year — EU-wide projects are facing significant headwinds. European companies say they need longer lead times and long-term contracts to make needed investments. 

    “You need that visibility and certainty to make those investments. We’re in a chicken game between governments and industry — who are the first ones that are putting the money on the table,” said Lucie Béraud-Sudreau, director of the military expenditure and arms production program at SIPRI. 

    Ultimately, the global defense boom means that there should be plenty of military spending to go around, at least in the short term as countries rush to prove their worth to their NATO and EU allies and the Russian threat remains acute.

    Paul McLeary reported from Washington and Suzanne Lynch from Brussels.

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    Paul McLeary and Suzanne Lynch

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  • Macron warns Ukraine counteroffensive could last ‘weeks, even months’

    Macron warns Ukraine counteroffensive could last ‘weeks, even months’

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    PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron warned on Monday that the Ukrainian counteroffensive against Russian forces could last “weeks, even months.”

    “The counteroffensive has started. It’s going to be deployed for several weeks and even months. We are supporting it within the limits that we set ourselves,” Macron said alongside German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda at the Elysée Palace.

    Ukrainian forces have stepped up operations in the last couple of days and announced on Monday evening that they had liberated several villages in the south and the east of the country.  

    “We want [the counteroffensive] to be as victorious as possible so that we can then start a period of negotiations in good conditions,” he added.

    The French, Polish and German leaders were meeting in Paris to discuss Ukraine’s request for security guarantees and a clear pathway to NATO membership ahead of a summit of the military alliance in July. However, on Monday evening it appeared that the leaders were sending different signals in a press conference that was held ahead of a working dinner in Paris.

    While Duda called for Ukraine to be given “a clear signal, a clear perspective” on its future membership of NATO, Scholz was less forthcoming, noting that debates were “intense.”

    “We have been discussing security guarantees since the start of the war … We have taken decisions to support Ukraine for as long as needed. This debate is intense between us, between Germany, France, and its U.S. partners,” Scholz said. “We will finalize [our position] when we have the results of our talks. But … it must be very concrete.”

    Earlier this month, Macron called for Ukraine to be given “strong and tangible” security guarantees but stopped short of calling for full-fledged NATO membership.

    Macron, Scholz and Duda all pledged that their countries would continue supporting Ukraine during the counteroffensive. Scholz told reporters that Germany would support Ukraine for “as long as necessary” and said his country had also set up systems to repair weapons during the current assault.

    Macron meanwhile said that France had “intensified deliveries” of weapons, ammunition and armored vehicles.

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    Clea Caulcutt

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  • Europe gathered in unity for Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s plea exposed its divisions

    Europe gathered in unity for Ukraine. Zelenskyy’s plea exposed its divisions

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    BULBOACA, Moldova — European leaders mounted a powerful show of defiance — and support for Ukraine — as they gathered Thursday for a historic summit in the ex-Soviet country of Moldova just kilometers from the Ukrainian border.

    But even as over 40 leaders pledged their solidarity with Ukraine at the second gathering of the so-called European Political Community, the difficulty in maintaining that unity was on display. Before and during the summit, leaders hedged and staked out competing positions on an increasingly contentious issue — what security guarantees the Western alliance can give Kyiv to ensure that if Russia is ever pushed out, it won’t return.

    French President Emmanuel Macron set the tone on Wednesday, imploring allies to offer Kyiv “tangible and credible” security guarantees — a shift in the French position. His German counterpart, Olaf Scholz, was more hesitant on Thursday, declining to provide any details and indicating it might be a question for after the war.

    Against this backdrop, Ukraine’s own leader, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, joined the leaders in a surprise appearance. Under a crisp blue sky, Zelenskyy made two explicit demands: One, a “clear invitation” to join NATO — another subject that divides allies — and “security guarantees on the way to NATO membership.”

    Both, he said, “are needed.”

    The divergent positions illustrate the fraught questions that lie ahead as the West strives to hold together against Russia and the war grinds on. Yet, for now, unity is still the predominant rhetorical theme when European leaders gather.

    “Today’s summit showed us how valuable the European Political Community is,” Moldovan President Maia Sandu said as the summit drew to a close. “We have shown that we are a family, a strong and united family of European nations acting together to make the continent stronger — more united and more peaceful.”

    Zelenskyy’s plea 

    The summit at Castle Mimi, a vineyard only 20 kilometers from the Ukrainian border, kicked off on an emotional note with Zelenskyy’s arrival.

    Sandu welcomed the Ukrainian president ahead of the other leaders, thanking him profusely for “keeping Moldova safe.” The side-by-side image of the two leaders, whose countries have both been battling Russian aggression to various degrees, was a powerful symbol.

    But with Kyiv under an intensifying hail of Russia’s bombs, Zelenskyy moved swiftly to his plea, asking allies to give Ukraine firm security guarantees and a commitment to NATO membership at an upcoming NATO summit in Lithuania. NATO agreed in 2008 that Ukraine would eventually become a member, but it has never offered a firm promise or timeline.

    While Zelenskyy is unlikely to get everything he wants at the July gathering, both issues are being hotly debated at the moment. 

    Macron set the stage on Wednesday when he turned heads with his most forthcoming remarks yet about security guarantees.

    “I’m in favor — and it will be the topic of collective discussions in the coming weeks — of giving tangible and credible security guarantees for two reasons: Ukraine protects Europe today and she gives Europe security guarantees,” he said. 

    Volodymyr Zelenskyy joined the leaders in a surprise appearance | Daniel Mihailescu/AFP via Getty Images

    But on Thursday, Scholz, the German chancellor, was more guarded. 

    “One thing is very clear: We are now making our contribution to supporting Ukraine,” he said. “We have always said that there must also be guarantees for a peace order after the war. Germany will make a contribution to this.”

    Scholz then refused to be drawn into the details of the discussion, even as it moved to center stage.

    Still, both Scholz and Macron confirmed that allies are actively discussing the subject, and working to coordinate their approaches ahead of the NATO summit. 

    Speaking in Oslo on Thursday, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg was similarly careful when addressing the touchy subject.

    “When the war ends, we need to ensure that history doesn’t repeat itself, that this pattern of Russian aggression against Ukraine really stops and therefore, we need to have in place frameworks to provide guarantees for Ukrainian security after the end of the war, so history doesn’t repeat itself,” he said.

    Leaders pose for the family photo at the European Political Community summit | Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images

    The lack of clarity reflects the complexity of offering — or even defining — “security guarantees” for another country. Europe may also be waiting to take its cue from the U.S. One option on the table may reflect the security model binding the U.S. and Israel, which prioritizes arms transfers and long-term support commitments. 

    Nonetheless, Scholz, speaking at the conclusion of the summit, was keen to stress that helping Ukraine defend itself was “the task at hand.” And he ruled out NATO membership for Ukraine at this juncture.

    “There are clear criteria for membership. You can’t have border conflicts for instance,” he said — an obvious reference to Ukraine. 

    Scholz’s remarks reflect the broad understanding that Ukraine cannot join NATO so long as it’s actively at war with Russia. But Ukrainian officials want NATO leaders to offer a concrete political gesture that Kyiv is at least on the membership path.

    Some NATO allies are willing to be far blunter than Scholz on the subject, most notably those representing the Baltic countries, highlighting yet another fissure that separates allies.

    “The only security guarantee that works … is NATO membership,” Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said Thursday, echoing Zelenskyy’s message.

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    Suzanne Lynch and Clea Caulcutt

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  • Macron extends olive branch to Eastern Europeans

    Macron extends olive branch to Eastern Europeans

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    BRATISLAVA — French President Emmanuel Macron sought to mend fences with Eastern Europeans at a conference in Slovakia, telling an audience largely from the region that he wants a more collaborative relationship with ex-Soviet states.

    “We didn’t listen enough to you, and your calls for your history and painful memories to be acknowledged,” he told an audience at the GLOBSEC security forum in the Slovak capital.

    “Some said you missed opportunities to stay silent; I say we sometimes missed opportunities to listen to you. That time is over,” he said, referring to a swipe by former French President Jacques Chirac in 2003 that offended Eastern Europeans.

    “I don’t think there is a western and an eastern Europe, an old Europe and a new one; there is only one Europe … with a will to build unity,” he said.

    Policy notes that played well with Eastern Europeans included saluting the strength of NATO, acknowledging the experience of many countries formerly under Soviet rule, and supporting a pathway for Ukraine toward NATO membership.

    The French president also said that although France had been criticized as being “arrogant,” “faraway” and “not interested” in the region, he has tried to engage more. His comments appeared to hit a chord among the delegates, who applauded him heartily during opening remarks.

    The speech represents a shift in tone for the French president, who previously distanced himself from a more hard-line approach against Russia taken by ex-Soviet states. In the past, Macron had warned against aligning with more hawkish countries, thus risking extending the conflict in Ukraine.

    And in the east, there is little love lost for the French president. Since the start of the war, Macron came under fire from Eastern European leaders for pursuing dialogue with Russia and clocking hours of calls with Vladimir Putin.

    “It was logical to me that with a strong U.S.-German relation nowadays, Russia out of the picture, France should look for improving its relations with” Central and Eastern Europe, said a senior Central European diplomat who complimented the speech.

    Previously, Macron’s statements that Russia should not be humiliated or that it should be given security guarantees have contributed to the perception that he has an ambiguous attitude toward Russia’s aggression. 

    But in Bratislava, the French president hammered home his commitment to supporting Ukraine “in the long-term.”

    “We need to help Ukraine lead an efficient counter-offensive. What is at stake is lasting peace. We must be clear: A ceasefire is not enough, we will recreate a frozen conflict that will be another war for tomorrow,” he said. 

    Support for Ukraine

    At GLOBSEC, Macron also called for “strong and tangible” security guarantees for Ukraine ahead of a key NATO summit in Vilnius in July. In recent weeks, Ukrainians have renewed their lobbying push for a concrete path toward membership, working hard to sway wary members of the alliance.

    The French president said Ukraine should be given security guarantees — not only because it is “protecting Europe,” but also because it is “so well-equipped.”

    “If we want a sustainable peace and want to be credible toward Ukraine, we must include it in an architecture of security,” he told delegates at the forum. 

    While there is a broad understanding Ukraine will not be able to join the alliance while it is still at war with Russia, NATO members are divided on how they should respond to Ukraine’s current push for membership. 

    Macron’s comments are likely to be read as a gesture toward many Eastern Europeans that think Ukraine’s allies should send positive signals on its NATO membership bid.

    In Bratislava, while Macron said it was unlikely there would be consensus on full membership for Ukraine, he did give a sense of what option he might back for Ukraine. 

    “We have to build something between Israel-style security guarantees and fully-fledged membership,” he said.

    Lili Bayer contributed reporting.

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    Clea Caulcutt

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  • Embattled Macron struggles to reconnect with France

    Embattled Macron struggles to reconnect with France

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    DUNKIRK, France — Emmanuel Macron couldn’t have hoped for a more engaging crowd.

    A group of women — workers with hard helmets and protective gear — were asking for a photo. “You’re being mobbed by the women of Aluminium Dunkerque!” they laughed.

    Standing amid the crowd of factory workers in the port city of Dunkirk, the French president was in his element: shaking hands, fielding questions and taking selfies. “Any more questions?” he asked.

    But he did not address the elephant in the room. And none of the blue-collar workers shouted about Macron’s unpopular, controversial pensions reform. It wasn’t that nobody dared ruin the unveiling of an electric battery giga-factory project; Rather these workers had been hand-picked by their employer.

    In the past weeks, Macron has been hitting the road across France visiting towns big and small, in what he has called a bid to “engage” with the people after the bruising debates over his controversial pensions reform.

    France has been rocked by weeks of protests in the wake of the French president’s decision to bypass parliament and push through a reform raising the age of retirement to 64 from 62. The forcing through of the reform was widely seen as yet another manifestation of Macron’s famously “Jupiterian” governance style — a vertical, top-down manner of running the country.

    Though nationwide protests have ebbed since the reform became law in April, Macron’s initial visits had been dogged by ad-hoc demonstrations called casserolades [casserole protests], organized by trade unionists and protesters against his reforms. The tightly-controlled show in Dunkirk followed more tumultuous scenes during his initial visits. In the eastern region of Alsace, Macron faced booing crowds and power cuts during his visit to a local factory in April, which were claimed by the hard-line CGT trade union.

    In Dunkirk, police secure the area ahead of the French president’s visit | Clea Caulcutt

    For the French president, it has meant a clampdown on visits. Encounters with the public are minutely choreographed to avoid bad publicity, with details unveiled at the very last minute.

    In Dunkirk, over 1,000 police officers were deployed to secure the area visited by the president, erecting barricades, closing streets and banning cars in the town center. Such scenes are unusual in France where successive presidents have enjoyed freely mingling with the people. On the sidelines of his visit, POLITICO caught up with the French president to ask him about his charm offensive.

    “Of course, it’s great … I’m trying to reach out [to the people] … to explain the coherence of what we are doing. We get results when we are coherent and consistent,” he said.

    On his difficulties in connecting with the public, Macron said: “My visits are simple … The overwhelming majority of the French may be against the pensions reform … But I do not confuse people who disagree with me with the small minority that are prone to disrespect and invective.”

    Police surround a protestor during Macron’s visit to Alsace, April 2023 | Frederick Florin/AFP via Getty Images

    Grabbing the limelight

    In addition to touring the country in recent weeks, Macron has relentlessly blitzed the media sphere, granting multiple interviews to the French and international press, while putting forward a string of government proposals for improving education, tackling immigration and bringing back industry.

    “In appearance, Emmanuel Macron and [his prime minister] Elisabeth Borne adopted a very efficient strategy. In drowning out the news, with their visits, their proposals and their new measures, they were able to impose a new agenda,” said Bruno Cautrès, a politics researcher at Sciences Po University.

    “But the data shows that the public has not moved on,” he added. This month several polls showed a majority of the French still support the protest movement against the president’s centerpiece reform.

    Even if nationwide protests over the pensions reform have tapered off, concerns are rising about increasing violence against elected officials and personal attacks against the president. In the southern city of Avignon, residents woke up last week to find dozens of posters depicting the French president as Hitler. That same week, Brigitte Macron’s great-nephew was assaulted in Macron’s hometown of Amiens in an apparent politically-motivated attack.  

    Fixing France

    Beyond the accusations that Macron’s pensions reform push was too brutal, and too disrespectful of parliamentary democracy, the recent political turmoil has political commentators discussing a “democratic crisis” in France.

    Some say France needs a constitutional reform, others that political life has become too polarized. According to Sylvain Fort, a former advisor to the French president, the mainstream left and right in France still haven’t recovered from his victory in 2017.

    “My great surprise is that opposition parties are still shadows of their former selves. It’s not the president that is stopping the opposition from rebuilding itself. The president doesn’t want the democratic debate to be sterile, it’s the result of years of neglect,” he said.

    Instead, the far-right and the far-left parties have dominated the political debate in France.

    In Dunkirk, Macron eschewed ideology and hoped to make one point clear: his tough choices are bringing jobs and investment back to France. But by the same token, if Macron’s reform drive grinds to a halt, his government will face significant challenges.

    “If after all the [recent] proposals he has made, we see that in a year’s time, nothing has progressed … then yes, he will find it very difficult to finish his mandate,” said Cautrès.

    The government has already had to delay tackling a key issue — migration — because of a lack of consensus and parliamentary support. Depending on the evolution of Macron’s reconnect-with-the-people tour, his second-term agenda could be severely upended, rendering him a lame-duck president.

    Fixing the economy may not be enough to rekindle trust between the French and their president.

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    Clea Caulcutt

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  • ChatGPT boss wants HQ in Europe

    ChatGPT boss wants HQ in Europe

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    Sam Altman wants you to know he loves Europe.

    The CEO of OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT, spent last week touring the Continent, stopping in Spain, France, Poland, Germany and the United Kingdom. He was at once talking AI regulation with policymakers — he met national leaders Pedro Sánchez, Emmanuel Macron, Mateusz Morawiecki, Olaf Scholz, and Rishi Sunak — and scouting locations for an OpenAI European office.

    “We really need an office in Europe,” Altman told POLITICO at a Paris event Friday. “We also just really want one.” Under the European Union’s upcoming Artificial Intelligence Act, companies with EU-based users would need a presence in the bloc, with national “supervisory authorities” in charge of implementing the regulation. The eventual choice of its HQ location will, therefore, determine which member country will oversee it when it comes to enforcing the AI Act.

    Since its launch in November 2022, OpenAI’s ChatGPT — a bot able to create texts such as songs, scripts, articles and software based on written prompts — has caused both optimism and anxiety about what the rise of AI means for the future of humankind. While some have marveled at the tool’s prowess in creating computer code and streamlining office work, others fear that it could be used to generate troves of automated disinformation, manipulative content and biased material — or even put millions of people out of a job.

    Nevertheless, politicians appear eager to host the world’s hottest AI lab. Opening the event, French Digital Minister Jean-Noël Barrot read a ChatGPT-generated description of Altman (“innovative, influential, visionary”) before pitching France as a “great AI country” — rattling off a list that included talent, abundant nuclear energy (to power the computers underpinning the AI), and cultural heritage among its assets.

    In the U.K., where Altman also briefed national security personnel, a person familiar with his conversation with Sunak, who was granted anonymity to talk of high-level meetings, described the British prime minister as “deferential.”

    Altman is still deliberating on where to house the new office. “If you had to pick just based on the most AI research talent, you’d pick France,” he told POLITICO. “But I’ve been super-impressed by the talent and energy everywhere.” OpenAI already has staff working in London, according to LinkedIn, and in September 2022 it created a U.K. subsidiary, according to the country’s business registry.

    In Paris, Altman strove to quash reports, from Reuters, that OpenAI might leave the EU if the AI Act proved too onerous. “We plan to comply. We want to offer services in Europe,” Altman told the Parisian audience. “We just want to make sure we’re technically able to. And the conversations have been super-productive this week,” he added.

    First floated by the European Commission in 2021, the AI Act would ban some uses of AI uses (such as social scoring and some instances of facial recognition) and impose stricter rules related to safety and oversight when it comes to sensitive AI applications considered “high-risk.” On top of that, according to a version of the AI Act adopted earlier this month by lawmakers in the European Parliament, “generative” models such as ChatGPT — which can create new content, like text or photos — would have to disclose a summary of copyrighted materials used as training data.

    The rule — which still needs to be agreed upon by representatives of the Commission and EU member countries — addresses worries from artists and publishers that AI firms might use their intellectual property without their consent or knowledge.

    “That sounds like a great thing to ask for,” Altman told POLITICO. “But — due to the way these datasets are collected and the fact people have been copying data in different ways on different websites — to say I have to legally warrant every piece of copyrighted content in there is not as easy as it sounds.”

    Altman thinks an easier way for creators to know if their work is being used would be based on whether their names appear in the prompts users give to an AI. “Every time you ask, ‘I want a song in the style of the Beatles,’ that would be clear,” Altman said.

    Sam Altman is the CEO of OpenAI, the maker of the artificial intelligence tool ChatGPT | Drew Angerer/Getty Images

    All in all, however, Altman struck an optimistic tone about the AI Act and said he’d be happy to meet EU policymakers — despite skipping a planned Brussels stop in his tour. He told POLITICO that OpenAI would join the EU’s first “sandbox,” based in Spain, where AI companies will be able to test their regulatory compliance.

    “It’s going to get to a good place,” he said. “Regulatory clarity will be a good thing.”

    This article has been updated.

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    Gian Volpicelli

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  • Send for Agent BoJo! Boris Johnson dispatched to Texas to shore up Republican support for Ukraine

    Send for Agent BoJo! Boris Johnson dispatched to Texas to shore up Republican support for Ukraine

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    DALLAS — Britain might have fallen out of love with Boris Johnson. But Ukraine’s allies in the U.S. reckon the charismatic ex-prime minister is still the perfect messenger to shore up support for the war in wavering Republican heartlands.

    Pro-Ukraine think tankers on Monday brought Johnson to a private lunch in Dallas, Texas, to meet two dozen of the state’s leading conservative figures, including politicians, donors and captains of industry.

    The message Johnson was there to deliver was simple: America must stay the course in Ukraine.

    “I just urge you all to stick with it,” Johnson told those seated in the grand, wood-panelled dining room in downtown Dallas, where POLITICO was also in attendance. “It will pay off massively in the long run.”

    The former U.K. prime minister flew to Texas as a growing number of conservative lawmakers, candidates and activists have started to question the size of the U.S. support package for Ukraine as it attempts to fight back against the invasion launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022.

    Political tensions over the war are expected to rise further as the 2024 U.S. election draws nearer.

    The two most high-profile potential candidates for the Republican nomination — former President Donald Trump and Florida Governor Ron DeSantis — have both voiced skepticism about America’s unwavering support for Ukraine. Trump has pledged to cut a “deal” to “end that war in one day,” while DeSantis dismissed it as a “territorial dispute” which does not involve America’s “vital national interests — though later partially backtracked.

    But Johnson told Texan Republicans on Monday: “You are backing the right horse. Ukraine is going to win. They are going to defeat Putin.”

    The lunch was not the first time Johnson has lobbied U.S. lawmakers on Ukraine’s behalf. He visited Washington in January, where he publicly urged the U.S. administration to give Ukraine fighter jets, and privately met Republican lawmakers on the same trip.

    Following that visit, the Center for European Policy Analysis (CEPA) — a bipartisan, Ukraine-supporting think tank based in Washington — decided to enlist Johnson’s support for a broader mission.

    The group wanted him to take his energetic, pro-conservative case for the war out of metropolitan D.C. and deep into Republican territory.

    “We wanted to make that case outside of Washington — where we all live in a bubble — and to really take it to the heartland, to places like Texas, to get more support for Ukraine, and make the case to people who are skeptical about that support,” said Alina Polyakova, CEPA’s chief executive.

    “In many ways Dallas and Texas are the center of the Republican debate,” she added. 

    Texas will be a key battleground in the 2024 Republican presidential primary. Trump held his first presidential rally in the Lone Star State in March, while DeSantis and former Governor of South Carolina Nikki Haley have also been courting votes in Texas. 

    Johnson is “very much seen as the architect of the Western policy” on Ukraine, Polyakova said, adding that “because Trump had nice things to say about him when he was the president,” it also gives Johnson “a lot of credibility as well with the base of the Republican Party.” 

    As well as the private lunch with Republicans in Dallas on Monday, Johnson also met with former U.S. President George W. Bush, who lives in the city with his wife Laura. Johnson is due to meet Texas Governor Greg Abbott in Austin on Tuesday.

    Unusually, the former U.K. prime minister, who raked in almost £5 million from speaking fees in the first six months after leaving office, was not paid for Monday’s lunchtime speaking engagement. However, he did arrange the Dallas trip as a stopover en route to the SCALE Global Summit in Las Vegas, a fintech conference where he will be paid an expected six-figure sum for a scheduled speech. 

    Man on a mission

    Johnson has kept Ukraine at the top of his public agenda since being forced to resign as PM last July over a string of personal scandals, including his attendance at COVID-19 lockdown-busting parties at his Downing Street home and office.

    In power, Johnson had forged a strong personal bond with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and played a leading role in early Western efforts to arm Ukraine. His allies even mooted the idea of him becoming a formal envoy to Ukraine following his abrupt Downing Street exit, though the idea never came to fruition.

    That hasn’t stopped Johnson continuing his personal lobbying push, however. He visited the Ukrainian capital Kyiv in January 2023 — despite no longer being a frontline politician — and has continued to speak in support on multiple occasions.

    At the Dallas lunch on Monday, Johnson insisted Western backing for Ukraine need not be indefinite, telling those present he had “every hope that the Ukrainians will be able to deliver a very substantial counterpunch this summer,” and that he believed there was “a prospect of a complete Russian military collapse.”

    And addressing concerns in Republican quarters that the U.S. should be focusing its attention on China rather than on a land war in Eastern Europe, Johnson said victory for Putin would be “terrible in its ramifications for south-east Asia, for the South China Sea, for all the areas of potential conflict between the great powers in the decades to come.”

    By contrast, he added, Western solidarity on Ukraine had already sent a clear message to China.

    “From Beijing’s point of view, they’re looking at this and they’re thinking this has massively increased the strategic ambiguity and the risk surrounding a venture against Taiwan,” Johnson said.

    One businessman present pressed Johnson on corruption in Ukraine, which he said he had heard was “really bad again.”

    But the former prime minister insisted the $50 billion spending package agreed by President Biden would prove “value for money.” The U.S. is getting a “huge, huge boost for global security for a relatively small outlay,” he said.     

    And Johnson being Johnson, he couldn’t resist a swipe at his old rival Emmanuel Macron, whom he has reportedly referred to in private as “Putin’s lickspittle.”

    “I think it was my French friend and colleague Emmanuel Macron who said ‘Putin must not be humiliated,’” Johnson told the lunch party, adopting a faux French accent to gently mock the president.

    “I think it takes an awful lot to humiliate Vladimir Putin, frankly,” Johnson went on. “I don’t think it’s our job to worry about Vladimir Putin’s ego, or his political prospects, or developments in his career.”

    Whether Johnson retains the populist credentials to win over the most ardent Trump supporters Stateside remains to be seen, however.

    In an interview with Nigel Farage on GB News last month, Trump said that while Johnson was a “wonderful guy” and “a friend of mine,” he had been disappointed by his time in office.

    Johnson had gone “a bit on the liberal side,” Trump noted sadly. “Probably in a negative way.”

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    Annabelle Dickson

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  • China fears threaten to shatter G7 unity

    China fears threaten to shatter G7 unity

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    HIROSHIMA, Japan — As the leaders of the Group of Seven gather for their annual summit in Japan this week, three world-changing conflicts — past, present and potential — will converge. 

    The atomic bomb that ended World War II destroyed much of the city of Hiroshima, where the leaders will meet. Today, Russia’s war in Ukraine is costing thousands of lives and billions of dollars as it drags on. And then there’s the risk of another horrifying catastrophe to come, as China threatens Taiwan. 

    And it’s over China where the alliance may come unstuck. 

    For hawks like the U.S. and Japan, the summit beginning Friday offers a timely opportunity to make the case to Europe’s leaders directly that it’s time to get off the fence when it comes to confronting China. 

    “This G7 Summit will be an appropriate venue to also discuss security issues and our security cooperation not only in Europe, but also in the Indo-Pacific region,” Noriyuki Shikata, cabinet secretary at the Japanese prime minister’s office, told POLITICO. 

    The U.S. is betting on at least the appearance of common ground with allies about the People’s Republic of China. Ahead of the summit, U.S. National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby told reporters: “You can expect to hear at the end of those discussions that all the G7 leaders are of a common mind about how to deal with the challenges that the PRC presents.”

    But — beyond the inevitably bland diplomatic lines of a summit communique — getting consensus on meaningful security measures for the Indo-Pacific region will be hard, even in the symbolic setting of Hiroshima. 

    East Asia is again descending into a state of growing security risks and military imbalance, this time due to China’s aggressive moves against Taiwan and the South China Sea. 

    “There’s a feeling that there’s a little bit of a gap, perhaps, between where the Europeans are on some China issues and where the U.S. is,” said Zack Cooper, former aide to the U.S. National Security Council and a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute. 

    Chief among the points of tension is how far to go in trying to stop a potential Chinese invasion of Taiwan, which could trigger world war and wreck the global economy. The self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own, provides most of the world’s advanced computer chips that are vital to the tech and defense industries. Not all European governments are convinced it’s something they need to prioritize. “It’s going to be a continuing challenge,” Cooper said. 

    Picking friends

    NATO is set to extend its footprint in Asia and set up a new liaison office in Tokyo to better coordinate with regional partners, such as Australia, South Korea and New Zealand. 

    However, French President Emmanuel Macron has repeatedly called on NATO to focus only on the Euro-Atlantic theater, saying Asia — China — is not covered geographically. He also triggered an outcry with recent comments to POLITICO, suggesting that Taiwan’s security was not Europe’s fight, and that the EU should not automatically follow America’s lead.  

    Justin Trudeau comes to the G7 following months of intelligence leaks that have painted his government as weak on foreign interference | Yuchi Yamazaki/AFP via Getty Images

    Macron’s stance sets France — which is the EU’s biggest military power — apart from the U.S. and Japan, and also from the U.K., where Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is expected to announce a new security deal with Japan during his visit.

    “Ukraine today could be East Asia tomorrow,” Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said last year, not long after Russia’s full-scale invasion began. Last week, Japan’s Foreign Minister Yoshimasa Hayashi made an even more explicit warning in a speech made to his 27 EU counterparts in Sweden.

    “China is continuing and intensifying its unilateral attempts to change the status quo by force in the East and South China Seas. China is also increasing its military activities around Taiwan,” Hayashi said. “In addition, China and Russia are strengthening their military collaboration, including joint flights of their bombers and joint naval exercises in the vicinity of Japan.”

    The Chinese-Russian ties will be part of the G7 leaders’ discussions, according to two officials involved in the process, who spoke on condition of anonymity because summit preparations are not public. While the Chinese authorities stop short of openly arming Russia in its war against Ukraine, a long-term strategic partnership between Beijing and Moscow is unshakable for President Xi Jinping.

    G7 countries such as the U.S. and Japan are expected to raise the need to sanction countries that work around Western trade restrictions on Russia, according to the officials. Chinese companies found to be selling dual use goods to Russia would be a top focus. 

    Bully tactics

    China’s willingness to throw around its economic weight is one area where there’s likely to be more unity between G7 allies. 

    The need to fight back against economic coercion will take center stage at the summit. The EU, U.S., Canada and Japan are going to rally around calls to combat China’s use of its economic power to bully smaller economies that act against its political interests.

    “The sense of urgency and unity is a force factor in and of itself. For example, never before has the G7 addressed economic coercion,” Rahm Emanuel, the U.S. ambassador to Japan, told POLITICO. 

    “When measured against the recent past, the G7 and EU are more strategically aligned in key economic and military matters,” added Emanuel, who served as chief of staff to former U.S. President Barack Obama.

    When it comes to the European view, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is clear that the bloc is “competing with China” and will need to up its game. “We will reduce strategic dependencies — we have learned the lessons of the last year,” she said in a press conference ahead of the trip.

    Justin Trudeau, the Canadian prime minister, comes to the G7 following months of intelligence leaks that have painted his government as weak on foreign interference, specifically from China. He’ll be carrying Canada’s message that it can be a safe, non-authoritarian alternative to Russia and China for supplying critical minerals and energy, including nuclear power. 

    Despite the toughening rhetoric on China, what still unites the G7 countries is an eagerness not to shut the door on talks with Beijing. 

    US President Joe Biden arrives to attend the G7 Summit in Hiroshima on May 18, 2023 | Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

    The Biden administration has for months been seeking to secure a visit to China for top Cabinet members, such as Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen. Biden’s national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, held eight hours of talks with the Chinese Communist Party’s foreign policy chief, Wang Yi, this month. 

    Just before he left for Japan on Wednesday, U.S. President Joe Biden was asked whether his last-minute decision to truncate his trip abroad could be seen as “almost a win for China.” Instead of staying in the region for a summit of the Quad — Japan, India, the U.S. and Australia — Biden plans to return to Washington Sunday to deal with domestic issues. 

    The president downplayed the move as something China could use to its advantage, noting he will still meet with Quad nation leaders in Japan. “We get a chance to talk separately at the meeting,” he said

    Then, Biden was asked whether he has plans to speak with the Chinese president soon.

    “Whether it’s soon or not, we will be meeting,” he said, before leaving the room. 

    Cristina Gallardo in London and Zi-Ann Lum in Ottawa contributed reporting.

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    Eli Stokols, Phelim Kine and Stuart Lau

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  • G7 vs China: US, Europe unite in tough messaging against Beijing

    G7 vs China: US, Europe unite in tough messaging against Beijing

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    HIROSHIMA, Japan — China on Saturday faced a strong pushback from the Group of Seven countries over its stances on Russia, Taiwan, trade bullying, economic monopoly and domestic interference, with the G7 leaders’ statement reflecting a broad convergence of the U.S., Europe and Japan on a need to change tack.

    Issued around the time of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s arrival in Hiroshima, where the summit is taking place, the statement by leaders of the G7 wealthy democracies asked Beijing to do more to stop Russia’s war on Ukraine.

    “We call on China to press Russia to stop its military aggression, and immediately, completely and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine,” the leaders said in the statement. “We encourage China to support a comprehensive, just and lasting peace based on territorial integrity and the principles and purposes of the U.N. Charter, including through its direct dialogue with Ukraine.”

    Crucially, the U.S. and Europe — the two main constituents of the G7 — came round to a common set of language on China. For France and Germany, in particular, their focus on a conciliatory attitude to China was reflected in the final statement, which began the China section by stating “We stand prepared to build constructive and stable relations with China.”

    The G7’s repeated emphasis of “de-risking, not decoupling” is a nod to the EU approach to China, as European member countries are wary of completely cutting off business ties with Beijing.

    The language on Taiwan remained the same compared with recent statements. “We reaffirm the importance of peace and stability across the Taiwan Strait as indispensable to security and prosperity in the international community,” the statement said, adding there’s “no change in the basic positions” in terms of the one China policies.

    Domestic interference

    Apart from Russia, another new element this year is the mention of domestic interference — which human rights groups say is a reflection of the growing concern about China’s “overseas police stations” in other countries. “We call on China … not to conduct interference activities aimed at undermining the security and safety of our communities, the integrity of our democratic institutions and our economic prosperity,” the leaders said in their statement, citing the Vienna Convention which regulates diplomatic affairs.

    On global economics, both sides of the Atlantic and Japan now see the need to fundamentally change the overall dynamic of economic globalization, placing security at the front of policy considerations.

    “Our policy approaches are not designed to harm China nor do we seek to thwart China’s economic progress and development. A growing China that plays by international rules would be of global interest,” the G7 leaders said in the statement.

    “We are not decoupling or turning inwards. At the same time, we recognize that economic resilience requires de-risking and diversifying. We will take steps, individually and collectively, to invest in our own economic vibrancy. We will reduce excessive dependencies in our critical supply chains,” they said.

    One central theme is economic coercion, where China has punished a wide range of countries — from Japan and Australia to Lithuania and South Korea — over the decade when political disagreements arose.

    The G7 countries launched a new “coordination platform on economic coercion” to “increase our collective assessment, preparedness, deterrence and response to economic coercion,” according to the statement. They also plan to coordinate with other partners to further the work on this.

    For France, the focus on a conciliatory attitude to China was reflected in the final statement, which began by stating “We stand prepared to build constructive and stable relations with China” | Pool phot by Stefan Rousseau/Getty Images

    The joint call for diverse sources of critical minerals, while stopping short of naming China, is widely seen as targeted against the Asian superpower that controls, for instance, 70 percent of global rare earths output. The G7 countries “support open, fair, transparent, secure, diverse, sustainable, traceable, rules and market-based trade in critical minerals” and “oppose market-distorting practices and monopolistic policies on critical minerals,” according to the statement.

    They also vow to deliver the goal of mobilizing up to $600 billion in financing for quality infrastructure through the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment, a rival to China’s Belt and Road initiative. “We will mobilize the private sector for accelerated action to this end,” they said.

    In a bilateral in Hiroshima, British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and French President Emmanuel Macron “welcomed the strong unity of purpose at the G7 on … our collective approach to the economic threat posed by China,” a spokesperson for Sunak’s office said.

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    Stuart Lau and Eli Stokols

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  • Macron vows to build back factories, boost France’s economy shaken by pension protests

    Macron vows to build back factories, boost France’s economy shaken by pension protests

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    DUNKIRK, France (AP) — Building factories to boost job creation and make France more independent — that’s President Emmanuel Macron’s ambition for the French economy.

    It’s a big challenge, as France reels from protracted protests, rising food and energy prices and other fallout from the Ukraine war.

    While Macron woos investors to help “re-industrialize” France and reduce Europe’s dependence on China and the U.S., protesters follow him around the country, banging saucepans to protest economic injustice and his leadership.

    More than 200 international business leaders are gathering Monday at the ‘Choose France’ event staged at the Palace of Versailles to promote foreign investment. Eminent business leaders taking part in the sixth such pow-wow ranged from The Walt Disney Company’s Robert Iger to Lakshmi Mittal of Arcelor Mittal.

    Elon Musk was a surprise visitor, meeting first with Macron at the Elysee Palace with discussions about “significant progress in the electric vehicle and energy sectors,” as well as digital regulation, the president tweeted.

    France vaunts its attractiveness and plans to to prove it with the announcement of 13 billion euros (about $14.14 billion) in investments via 28 initiatives, several of them announced recently.

    It follows a series of incentives announced by Macron last week to support innovative industries and transition towards greener technology. They include tax credits in fields like battery production, electric cars, hydrogen and wind power, as well as accelerating authorization for industrial projects.

    “France is changing, is getting adapted to the course of the world and I believe that we’re following the right path, which is to reindustrialize the country, to be more sovereign and more respectful of the climate and biodiversity,” Macron said Friday during a visit to Dunkirk, in northern France.

    Macron’s move comes after months of protests against his decision to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64. The unpopularity of the change has weakened his government at parliament and hampered his economic strategy.

    Speaking on French television network TF1, Macron said Monday that he planned to continue with the pension reform despite the nationwide outcry. He also promised 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) in middle class tax cuts, which was seen as a sweetener.

    Unions have called for a new round of nationwide demonstrations on June 6. Meanwhile, opponents keep staging small protests, with people loudly banging pots and pans in places where Macron and government members are scheduled to travel.

    Credit rating agency Fitch last month downgraded France’s sovereign credit rating, citing the protest movement. “Political deadlock and (sometimes violent) social movements pose a risk to Macron’s reform agenda,” the agency wrote.

    In Dunkirk Friday, Macron made time for selfies with workers from several local factories who attended his speech at Aluminium Dunkerque, one of the biggest aluminum production sites in Europe. No one asked him about the retirement age, but unlike previous visits across French regions, he didn’t walk through city streets to meet with the crowd.

    A heavy police presence was deployed in Dunkirk to keep potential protesters away.

    Macron announced two major investments, both in the battery sector: one worth 5.2 billion euros ($5.7 billion) by Taiwanese group Prologium, the other one via a joint venture of China’s XTC with French energy giant Orano worth 1.5 billion euros ($1.6 billion). They are expected to create 3,000 and 1,700 jobs in the area respectively by 2030.

    He seized the occasion to present the pension reform as part of a “package” that has already produced “results.” “If we want to be more competitive, we must work a little longer,” he said.

    Since taking office in 2017, Macron has cut business taxes. He has made it easier to hire and fire workers and more difficult for the unemployed to claim benefits, amid other pro-business policies.

    Macron said 300 new factories had been created since 2017 — two thirds in the past two years — while 600 had been shut down in the previous decade. The COVID-19 crisis and Ukraine war have shown that domestic industrial production is needed to strengthen the country’s sovereignty, he stressed.

    For a fourth consecutive year, France was the European country that had attracted the greatest number of foreign investments, Macron said, citing a survey by EY last week.

    The Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Friday its statistics showed France’s unemployment rate in March reached its lowest level since 2001, at 6.9% — down from about 10% when Macron was elected. Still, the proportion of jobless people in France is higher than the average in the European Union, which is stable at 6%.

    ProLogium CEO Vincent Yang told reporters in Dunkirk his group considered establishing facilities in the U.S., yet eventually chose the European Union as being more a favorable environment to develop innovative battery technology.

    France was a relevant choice, Yang said, because “we need to have stable, low-cost, and green electrical power” and Dunkirk, one of the major industrial ports in Europe, already has battery-related facilities. The country relies on nuclear power for 70% of its electricity, offering a low-carbon alternative to fossil fuels.

    Macron has been one of the most prominent advocates for a strong EU response to the $375 billion U.S. Inflation Reduction Act announced last summer by President Joe Biden to favor clean energy technology.

    Earlier this year, the European Union presented plans to revamp its policies on promoting green technologies, unleashing subsidies and other financial incentives to ramp up domestic production.

    “We’re going to better target our subsidies on low-emission European productions,” Macron said. “We’re not being protectionist but taxpayers neither in the U.S. nor China fund batteries made in Europe. So why should we be the only place in the world where taxpayers’ money goes to helping non-European products? We’re going to stop doing that.”

    He also called last week for a “pause” on EU environmental regulations, arguing the bloc of 27 already imposes tougher rules than its competitors. The comments prompted immediate criticism from French and European Green politicians.

    Macron later insisted he was sticking to his climate-related commitments, including all policies aimed at making the EU reaching carbon neutrality by 2050, but said, “Let’s not add more.”

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  • Clashes erupt in France on May Day as hundreds of thousands protest Macron’s pension reforms

    Clashes erupt in France on May Day as hundreds of thousands protest Macron’s pension reforms

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    Protesters clashed with security forces across France on Monday as hundreds of thousands of people took to the streets for Labour Day to vent their anger against President Emmanuel Macron’s pension reform.

    Unions had been hoping for a vast turnout across France for the May 1 protests to further rattle Macron, who has been greeted by pot-bashing and jeers as he toured the country seeking to defend the reforms and relaunch his second mandate.

    Macron last month signed a law to raise the retirement age from 62 to 64, despite months of strikes against the bill.

    French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne slammed as “unacceptable” violence that erupted in several cities.

    “In many cities in France, this May Day was a moment for responsible mobilisation and commitment. The scenes of violence on the sidelines of the demonstrations are all the more unacceptable,” she wrote on Twitter.

    Paris’s city hall told Le Parisien that the protests in the capital since January have caused $1.75 million worth of damage to public property.

    General views of protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.
    General views of protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.

    Onur Coban/dia images via Getty Images


    In Paris, radical protesters threw projectiles at police and broke windows of businesses such as banks and estate agents, with security forces responding with tear gas and water cannon, AFP correspondents said.

    One policeman, hit by a Molotov cocktail, has suffered severe burns to the hand and face, Paris police told AFP. The police said 46 people have been arrested in the capital alone so far.

    Police had been given a last-minute go-ahead to use drones as a security measure after a Paris court rejected a petition from rights groups for them not to be used.

    Police deployed tear gas in Toulouse in southern France as tensions erupted during demonstrations, while four cars were set on fire in the southeastern city of Lyon.

    In the western city of Nantes, police also fired tear gas after protesters hurled projectiles, AFP correspondents said. The windows of Uniqlo clothing store were smashed.

    “Even if the vast majority of demonstrators were peaceful, in Paris, Lyon and Nantes in particular the police face extremely violent thugs who came with one objective: to kill cops and attack the property of others,” said Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin on Twitter.

    Protesters briefly occupied the luxury Intercontinental hotel in the southern city of Marseille, breaking flower pots and damaging furniture.

    Some 782,000 people protested across France, including 112,000 in Paris alone, the interior ministry said. The CGT union said it counted 2.3 million protesters across France, including 550,000 in the capital.

    Police attend protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.
    Police attend protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.

    Onur Coban/dia images via Getty Images


    The turnout was massively higher than May Day last year but smaller than the biggest protests seen against the pension reform this year.

    Macron and his government have tried to turn the page on the months of popular discontent, hoping to relaunch his second term after the reform was signed into law.

    “The page is not going to be turned as long as there is no withdrawal of this pension reform. The determination to win is intact,” said CGT chief Sophie Binet at the Paris protest.

    “The mobilisation is still very, very strong,” added Laurent Berger, head of the CFDT union.

    “It is a sign that resentment and anger are not diminishing.”

    Monday marked the first time since 2009 that all eight of France’s main unions joined in calling for protests.

    Radical ecological activists from Extinction Rebellion earlier sprayed orange paint on the facade of the glitzy Fondation Louis Vuitton museum in Paris, which is backed by the LVMH luxury goods giant.

    In a separate action by a different environmental protest group, activists sprayed orange paint around the Place Vendome in central Paris, known for its jewelry shops, targeting the facade of the ministry of justice.

    France has been rocked by a dozen days of nationwide strikes and protests against Macron and his pension changes since mid-January, some of which have turned violent.

    When Macron attended the final of the French football cup on Saturday, he was met with activists waving red cards.

    Almost three in four French people were unhappy with Macron, a survey by the IFOP polling group found last month.

    Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, with Macron’s support, invoked in March the controversial article 49.3 of the constitution to ram the pension reform through parliament without a vote in the hung lower house.

    In the Place de la Republique where the march started in the French capital, a huge vest with the slogan “Macron resign” was fixed to the giant statue symbolising the French republic at its centre.

    Police attend protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.
    Police attend protests during Labor and Solidarity Day on May 1, 2023 in Paris, France.

    Onur Coban/dia images via Getty Images


    “The law has been passed but has not been accepted, there is a desire to show discontent peacefully to have a reaction in response that shows a certain level of decency,” said Celine Bertoni, 37, an academic in the central city of Clermont-Ferrand.

    “I still hope that we are going to be told it will be withdrawn,” she added.

    “Macron has the impression that as he was elected he has all the power! But I want him to cede his place to the people,” added Karine Catteau, 45, in the western city of Rennes.

    May Day demonstrations on a smaller and less fractious scale took place across Europe, including Spain where flag-waving demonstrators joined more than 70 rallies under the slogan: “Raise wages, lower prices and share profits”.

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  • King Charles III crowned in Westminster Abbey

    King Charles III crowned in Westminster Abbey

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    LONDON — In a ceremony of pageantry, quirks and ancient tradition, King Charles III, Britain’s 62nd monarch, was on Saturday officially crowned head of state of the United Kingdom and 14 Commonwealth realms.

    The king, who succeeds his late mother, Queen Elizabeth II, was coronated at London’s Westminster Abbey alongside his wife Camilla in a two-hour ceremony attended by world leaders, members of the royal family, foreign dignitaries, faith leaders, and heads of state.

    The historic event was overseen by the Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and punctuated with rituals, regalia, and objects dating back centuries.

    These included oaths, spurs, a Jewelled Sword of Offering, various sceptres and an orb. The king was anointed with holy oil via a coronation spoon, while the watching public were offered the chance to declare their loyalty by proclaiming: “God save King Charles.” 

    Among the 2,000 guests were French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife, Brigitte. First Lady Jill Biden, the wife of U.S. President Joe Biden, was also present, accompanied by her granddaughter, Finnegan. They wore blue and gold attire respectively, interpreted as support for Ukraine, whose flags share the same colors. 

    The U.S. president himself chose not to attend, but wrote on Twitter: “Congratulations to King Charles III and Queen Camilla on their Coronation. The enduring friendship between the U.S. and the U.K. is a source of strength for both our peoples. I am proud the First Lady is representing the United States for this historic occasion.”

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen sat beside President of the European Council Charles Michel, despite long-standing tensions between Brussels’ two most prominent politicians. European Parliament President Roberta Metsola was also in the congregation.

    U.S. Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry was seen speaking briefly to former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, now president for global affairs at Meta. King Charles has been a life-long campaigner on the environment.

    U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, who gave a reading during the service, was joined by senior members of his Cabinet and as well as all his living predecessors, including Tony Blair, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss — the latter having served in Downing Street for just 49 days last year. Commons Leader Penny Mordaunt, a member of Sunak’s Cabinet, took a leading role in the ceremony, carrying the sword of state due to her ceremonial role as lord president of the privy council. 

    Keir Starmer, leader of the U.K.’s opposition Labour Party, sat next to the leader of the Liberal Democrats, Ed Davey, while leaders of the devolved nations in the U.K. were also in attendance. Prince Harry was seated among members of the U.K. royal family, though his wife, Meghan Markle, remained in California with their children.

    Also present were the presidents of Germany and Italy, Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Sergio Mattarella, China’s vice-president, Han Zheng, and the prime minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif. Han’s attendance had been a subject of controversy in the U.K. due to his central role in China’s repression of Hong Kong.

    There were also leaders from the 14 Commonwealth nations for whom Charles is head of state, including Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Australian Prime Minister Anthony Albanese and New Zealand’s Chris Hipkins, as well as representatives from Grenada, Papa New Guinea, the Bahamas and others. 

    Celebrities such as singer Katy Perry, chef Jamie Oliver, actor Emma Thompson, and British TV duo Ant and Dec also took seats in the Abbey.

    Thousands of flag-carrying members of the public gathered along the procession route | Niklaas Halle’n/AFP via Getty Images

    Britain is a constitutional monarchy, and as head of state King Charles has a ceremonial role in opening and dissolving parliament, appointing a government, and approving bills before they become law. He also meets weekly with Sunak, the prime minister.

    However, the ability to make and pass legislation rests with politicians in an elected parliament.

    Thousands of flag-carrying members of the public enjoyed another British tradition — light summer drizzle — as they gathered in the early hours along the procession route from Buckingham Palace to Westminster Abbey. Before the coronation, the head of the U.K.’s leading republican movement, which held a protest in Trafalgar Square, was among those arrested by police. 

    Members of the royal family were gathered on the Buckingham Palace balcony later Saturday afternoon ahead of a series of celebratory events taking place Sunday, including a pop concert at Windsor Castle. Monday has been designated a public holiday in Britain to mark the occasion.

    This article is being updated as the ceremonies continue.

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    Sebastian Whale

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  • Don’t isolate China, Brussels tells EU capitals

    Don’t isolate China, Brussels tells EU capitals

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    BRUSSELS — The EU’s high command is calling on European governments to keep talking to China amid deepening tensions between Washington and Beijing. 

    The European Union’s diplomatic arm wants member countries to “be prepared” for a potentially critical escalation in the crisis over Taiwan, warning that a military conflict would upend the vital supply of microchips to Europe. 

    But while there’s a need to reduce risks to Europe, it may not seal itself off from China, according to an internal document drafted by the European External Action Service and seen by POLITICO. 

    The document, which will be discussed by the bloc’s foreign ministers at a gathering in Stockholm on Friday, comes at a crucial time for the EU as it navigates an increasingly complex relationship with China. The U.S. is doubling down on its hawkish stance toward Beijing, while European leaders have not yet agreed on a unified approach. 

    The paper triggered immediate backlash from some of Europe’s more hawkish governments. “With all possible alarm lights flashing, we seem to prefer hitting a snooze button again,” one senior EU diplomat said on condition of anonymity in order to discuss sensitive issues.

    In the document, prepared by the EU executive’s diplomatic officials, the bloc’s 27 member countries are urged to seize “a window of opportunity” to reduce the risk of China’s growing influence over economic and security matters. 

    A chance remains for Europe to speak directly to President Xi Jinping’s government, the paper says. “China and Europe cannot become more foreign to each other. Otherwise there is a risk that misunderstandings will grow and spread to other areas,” according to the draft. 

    “Systemic rivalry may feature in almost all areas of engagement. But this must not deter the EU from maintaining open channels of communication and seeking constructive cooperation with China […] Such cooperation can serve to break through a growing self-induced isolation of the Chinese leadership but most importantly should advance the EU’s core interests,” the paper continued.

    Friday’s debate at an informal meeting of foreign ministers in Sweden will fire the starting gun on a discussion over the EU’s relationship with China that is expected to dominate policymaking in the coming months, with a more comprehensive debate expected at an EU leaders’ summit in Brussels this June. 

    De-risking Beijing

    The paper calls on member countries to speed up plans for “de-risking” and reducing overdependence on China. 

    “De-risking can ensure predictability and transparency in our economic and trade relations, while promoting a secure, rules-based approach,” the paper says. 

    The call for de-risking comes as Beijing appears increasingly impatient with the narrative that it poses a threat to the West. Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang, speaking in Berlin this week, criticized European politicians for attempting to “get rid of China” in the name of de-risking. 

    The paper also tackles the politically sensitive issue of Taiwan, with ministers due to discuss this issue as well on Friday. French President Emmanuel Macron told POLITICO in an interview last month that Europe should avoid getting dragged into a confrontation between China and the U.S. over the self-governing island, which Beijing claims as its own. 

    On Taiwan, the paper says: “The EU is […] adamant that any unilateral change of the status quo and use of force could have massive economic, political and security consequences, at global level, especially considering Taiwan’s primary role as supplier of the most advanced semiconductors.” 

    The document continues: “The EU needs to be prepared for scenarios in which tensions increase significantly. The risk of escalation in the Taiwan Strait clearly shows the necessity to work with partners to deter the erosion of the status quo in the interest of all.”

    Some 90 percent of advanced semiconductors imported into the EU come from Taiwan, according to the bloc’s own estimates.

    Taiwan’s semiconductor giant TSMC has been under pressure to relocate some of its manufacturing capabilities, but so far it has only moved in the direction of Taiwan’s two presumed security providers — the U.S. and Japan.  

    On Ukraine, the EU is not impressed with China’s latest diplomatic show, marked by President Xi Jinping’s belated first call with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

    “China’s ’12-point position paper on the Ukraine Crisis’ […] confirms its firmly pro-Russian stance,” the document said. “Direct dialogue between China and Ukraine would be the best opportunity for China to contribute to a fair political settlement,” it continued.

    EU member countries should keep warning Beijing to refrain from supporting Russia, including by circumventing sanctions, the same paper added.

    The paper also casts gloom on the outlook for China’s domestic development, saying the Asian superpower “is likely to face unprecedented economic and political challenges internally” due to the deceleration of economic growth and demographic change. 

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    Stuart Lau , Jacopo Barigazzi and Suzanne Lynch

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  • France to give Ukraine more armored vehicles and light tanks, Macron and Zelenskyy announce after surprise summit

    France to give Ukraine more armored vehicles and light tanks, Macron and Zelenskyy announce after surprise summit

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    France “will train and equip” several Ukrainian battalions and provide them with “tens of armored vehicles and light tanks,” Emmanuel Macron and Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced late Sunday.

    The news came after Ukraine’s president traveled to Paris and had a three-hour dinner with his French counterpart (including one hour alone, without advisers) as part of a tour of European capitals designed to shore up support among Kyiv’s allies.

    “In the coming weeks, France will train and equip several battalions with tens of armored vehicles and light tanks, including AMX-10RCs,” according to a joint statement issued by both France and Ukraine after the dinner. France is also “focusing its effort in supporting Ukraine’s air defense capacities.” Macron and Zelenskyy also called for new sanctions against Russia.

    Macron is also expected to make more announcements on Ukraine on Monday.

    “What Ukraine needs is combat equipment, armoured vehicles, tanks, artillery,” an Elysée official said. “Zelenskyy also expressed the need to protect the skies from drone or missiles attacks … France will continue to deliver … More of the most modern systems will be offered.”

    But on the question of whether Paris would send Ukraine the fighter jets it has been asking for, the French official said: “That discussion is a bit premature” due to the focus on land operation and air defenses.

    As he arrived in France, Zelenskyy said: “With each visit, the defensive and offensive capabilities of Ukraine increase.” He added: “The connection with Europe is getting stronger, and the pressure on Russia is increasing. I will meet my friend Emmanuel. Let’s discuss the most important points of bilateral relations.”

    Agence-France Presse and a handful of other outlets first reported on Sunday that French President Emmanuel Macron would receive Zelenskyy in the evening and the two leaders will hold talks over dinner ahead of a possible joint announcement.

    The Ukrainian president earlier Sunday was in Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who confirmed that his country would send a €2.7 billion package of military aid to support Ukraine.

    “Now is the time for us to determine the end of the war already this year, we can make the aggressor’s defeat irreversible already this year,” Zelenskyy said at a press conference with Scholz.

    On Saturday, Zelenskyy met with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in Rome, thanking her for “helping to save lives” by continuing to provide aid to Kyiv. He also sat down for an audience with Pope Francis, who told the Ukrainian leader that he is “praying for peace.”

    The flurry of diplomatic visits comes as Ukraine calls on the West to provide its armed forces with more heavy weaponry and fighter jets to support a long-awaited counteroffensive and help liberate Russian-occupied territory in the east of the country.

    “We are working on the creation of a coalition of combat aircraft,” Zelenskyy said on Sunday, as fierce battles continued to rage near the contested town of Bakhmut, where the two sides have been locked in a bloody stalemate for weeks.

    According to Kyiv, its troops have made a series of gains there in recent days, and Zelenskyy has pledged to take back swathes of territory currently held by Russian forces, while adding that he is open to peace talks on Ukraine’s terms.

    This article was updated.

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    Gabriel Gavin

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  • China says it respects ex-Soviet nations after envoy’s ‘unacceptable’ comments on sovereignty

    China says it respects ex-Soviet nations after envoy’s ‘unacceptable’ comments on sovereignty

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    European officials are gearing up for talks on how to deal with China after a series of controvertial events.

    Pool | Getty Images News | Getty Images

    China said Monday it respects the independence of former Soviet nations after remarks by its ambassador in France were deemed “unacceptable” in Europe.

    It comes as the 27 members of the European Union reassess their diplomatic and economic relationship with Beijing.

    Lu Shaye, China’s ambassador to France, told French media on Friday that countries formerly part of the Soviet Union lacked status in international law. A transcript with the ambassador’s remarks was removed by the Chinese Embassy on Monday morning, according to Bloomberg.

    The comment sparked criticism in several European capitals, particularly in the Baltic nations, which broke free from the USSR after it collapsed in 1991.

    “We are not ex-Soviet countries. We are countries that were illegally occupied by the Soviet Union,” Lithuania Foreign Affairs Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis told reporters in Luxembourg.

    That sentiment was echoed by Estonian Foreign Affairs Minister Margus Tsahkna, “We are an independent country, member of the EU, of NATO. I hope there will be an explanation.”

    Speaking also in Luxembourg, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said the comments of the Chinese ambassador were “totally unacceptable.”

    “We are denouncing such statement and we hope the bosses of this ambassador will make things straight,” Lipavsky said.

    It was within this context, that the spokesperson for the Chinese foreign affairs ministry, Mao Ning, said Monday, “China respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the Soviet Union’s dissolution.”

    This is just the latest episode in a series of controversial events between China and the European Union.

    EU to ‘recalibrate’ China strategy

    Returning from a visit to China earlier this month, French President Emmanuel Macron said the EU needs to have its own policy on Taiwan and to avoid following the U.S. agenda on the matter. He later added that being allies does not mean being vassals, reinforcing the idea of an independent EU policy.

    Macron’s intervention was criticized in the U.S., but also in Germany and other European nations. Overall, some EU countries are afraid of clashing with the United States, particularly given its critical role on security and defense.

    Macron’s comments also exposed a divide within the EU about what sort of relationship the bloc wants with China. Some are afraid of antagonizing China and endangering deep economic ties, while others favor the transatlantic alliance.

    The subject will be debated among the 27 heads of state, including Macron and Germany’s Chancellor Olaf Scholz, at a meeting in June.

    “We will reassess and recalibrate our strategy towards China,” the EU’s top diplomat, Josep Borrell, said Monday.

    However, this is likely to be a long and hard discussion and it remains to be seen whether the bloc will be united on the matter.

    In 2022, China was the largest source of EU imports and the third-largest buyer of EU goods, highlighting the economic importance that Beijing has for Europe. This is particularly relevant when economic growth in the EU is vulnerable to the ongoing war in Ukraine.

    European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said in March that China is a systemic rival, an economic competitor and a strategic partner. This then applies differently to various policies. For instance, for climate matters, the EU believes China can be a strategic partner; but when it comes to providing market access, the bloc complains that Beijing is a competitor.

    However, combining all of these different dynamics could be hard to achieve.

    “Managing this relationship and having an open and frank exchange with our Chinese counterparts is a key part of what I would call the de-risking through diplomacy of our relations with China,” von der Leyen said ahead of a trip to Beijing.

    “We will never be shy in raising the deeply concerning issues I have already set out. But I believe we must leave space for a discussion on a more ambitious partnership and on how we can make competition fairer and more disciplined,” she added.

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  • Cold War with China would ‘betray’ Britain’s national interests, UK foreign secretary warns

    Cold War with China would ‘betray’ Britain’s national interests, UK foreign secretary warns

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    LONDON — Britain must engage with China rather than isolate Beijing in a “new Cold War,” the U.K. foreign secretary will say Tuesday in a warning shot to Tory China hawks.

    James Cleverly will set out the U.K.’s approach toward China in a long-awaited speech on Tuesday, weeks after the government’s updated Integrated Review of defense and foreign policy described relations with the emerging superpower as an “epoch-defining and systemic challenge.”

    Cleverly is expected to set out a three-pronged approach for relations with Beijing — limiting Chinese involvement in sectors deemed critical for national security; strengthening ties with Indo-Pacific allies; and — most controversially — engaging with China directly to promote stable relations.

    And in a message to the increasingly outspoken China hawks within his Conservative Party, the foreign secretary will warn against an era of open confrontation with Beijing that might harm the U.K.’s economic interests and limit the West’s ability to engage on shared challenges, including climate change and nuclear proliferation.

    “It would be clear and easy — perhaps even satisfying — for me to declare a new Cold War and say that our goal is to isolate China,” Cleverly is expected to say, according to words shared by his department ahead of the speech.

    “Clear, easy, satisfying — and wrong. Because it would be a betrayal of our national interest and a wilful misunderstanding of the modern world.”

    Under pressure from Tory MPs, Rishi Sunak has toughened his approach toward China since becoming prime minister, ordering the sale last November of a Chinese-owned semiconductor plant in Wales under new national security legislation.

    Cleverly has focused on building alliances with countries close to China, returning at the weekend from a tour of the Pacific — the first visit to some areas by a British foreign secretary since the 1970s. Britain recently signed deals to join a Pacific-focused defense pact with Australia and the U.S., and a large free-trade agreement with 11 Pacific rim nations including Japan, Vietnam, Malaysia and Singapore.

    But Britain is yet to join the group of large European countries sending their leaders on official visits to Beijing. French President Emmanuel Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen both visited China earlier this month.

    Cleverly himself is expected to visit China later in 2023, but Downing Street has not floated any travel plans for the prime minister.

    Cleverly’s remarks come as some British firms cut their ties with China and move their activity to other countries in preparation for a worsening in relations. The U.K. says it wants to continue helping British companies do business with China — but without entering strategic dependencies.

    In his speech to the Lord Mayor’s Easter Banquet, Cleverly will call on China to be more open about the intent behind its vast military expansion in order to prevent a “tragic miscalculation,” and say the U.K. and its allies “are prepared to be open about our presence in the Indo-Pacific.”

    He will also send a strongly worded message on the need for the Chinese government to respect human rights within its borders, describing China’s repression of the Uyghur minority in Xinjiang as an attempt to build “a 21st century version of the gulag archipelago.”

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    Cristina Gallardo

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