Macron charms parties in impassioned speech
WASHINGTON >> French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday delivered an impassioned call for multilateralism and U.S. engagement in the world, saying it was “an essential part of our confidence in the future.”
Speaking to a joint meeting of Congress, amid frequent standing ovations and cheers, Macron recalled the long history of U.S.-French relations, and the countries’ shared values and culture in areas as diverse as democracy and freedom, human and civil rights, literature, jazz and the “Me Too” movement.
But, he warned, “this is a time of determination and courage. What we cherish is at stake. What we love is in danger. We have no choice but to prevail. And together we shall prevail.”
Much of what he said, although couched in stirring and global terms, posed a direct challenge to the Trump administration and to the U.S. president with whom Macron has said he has a special relationship.
Macron expressed hope that the United States would reenter the Paris climate accord, which President Donald Trump exited early in his administration.
“Some people think that securing current industries and their jobs is more urgent than transforming our economies to meet the challenge of global change,” he said. “I hear . . . but we must find a transition to a low-carbon economy. What is the meaning of our life, really, if we work and live destroying the planet, while sacrificing the future of our children?”
Macron also called for resolving of trade disputes through negotiation and the World Trade Organization, indirectly criticizing Trump’s imposition of tariffs. “I believe we can build the right answers ... by negotiating through the WTO and building cooperative solutions,” he said.
“We wrote these rules,” he said. “We should follow them.” France and the European Union are seeking exemptions from steel and aluminum tariffs due to be imposed May 1.
More broadly, the free world needed to “push aside” the forces of “isolationism, withdrawal and nationalism,” Macron said, and to “shape our common answers to the global threats that we are facing” with an updated multilateralism, lest the postWorld War II institutions that “you built,” including the United Nations and NATO, be destroyed.
“This requires more than ever the United States’ involvement, as your role was decisive in creating and safeguarding the free world. The United States is the one who invented this multilateralism; you are the one who has to help to preserve and reinvent it,” he said.
On Iran, he repeated his support for the nuclear deal, even as he outlined a four-part “comprehensive” strategy to address upheaval in the Middle East, even if Trump opts out of the agreement.
“Our objective is clear. Iran shall never possess any nuclear weapons,” he said as the chamber rose with applause. “Not now. Not in five years. Not in 10 years. Never. But this policy should never lead us to war in the Middle East,” he said. “Let us not replicate past mistakes . ... Let us not be naive on one side . ... Let us not create new wars on the other side.”
“There is an existing framework, the JCPOA [Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action] to control the activity of Iran. We signed it, at the initiative of the United States. We signed it, both the United States and France. That is why we cannot say we should get rid of it like that.”
Trump, who has called the agreement “the worst deal” in history and has said he will determine by May 12 whether to withdraw the United States from it, will have to make his own decision, Macron said.
“But what I want to do ... is work on a more comprehensive deal” that would address Iran’s ballistic missile program and its expansionism in Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq and Syria, as well as its nuclear program, he said.