France’s Macron seen as UN ally
UNITED NATIONS, US: United Nations ( UN) Secretary General Antonio Guterres on Monday quickly reached out to French President-elect Emmanuel Macron to schedule an early meeting and get to work on addressing climate change and a range of international issues.
Macron’s election was welcome news at the UN as it battles to ward off plans from US President Donald Trump to cut funding to the world organisation.
Guterres will write a letter to Macron to congratulate him and propose a meeting “in the very near future,” said UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric, adding: “We look forward to rapid engagement.”
Stressing that France is “a highly-valued partner of this organisation”, the UN spokesman said climate change, the fight against terrorism and peacekeeping were among the issues that would be discussed during a fi rst meeting.
Macron, who defeated far-right leader Marine Le Pen in a runoff on Sunday, promised during the campaign to defend the Paris climate deal on combating global warming.
His fi rm support for the accord signed by 175 countries at the UN last year stands in contrast with Trump, who has threatened to pull out of the deal.
The US administration is expected to decide in the coming weeks on whether it will withdraw.
In a swipe at the US, Macron released a video message inviting American climate scientists to move to France. “We like innovation, we want innovative people,” he said in the message.
France is also a leading voice on UN peacekeeping, which has come under heavy US pressure to draw down and close its missions, many of which are in Africa.
As the biggest contributor to the peacekeeping budget, the US has made clear it wants to reduce its share and has begun a mission-bymission review to assess whether some peace operations are no longer needed.
A former Socialist prime minister of Portugal, Guterres won backing early on from French President Francois Hollande in the race to be UN chief.
The top UN diplomat has worked closely with France since he took over from Ban Ki-moon on Jan 1.
“France now has an opportunity to both provide a real source of support to Guterres and possibly to step into a leadership role with Germany, Canada, Britain and a few others,” said Bathsheba Crocker, a former US assistant secretary of state for international organisations affairs. — AFP