Call to action – Merkel
ARMISTICE DAY: SUPERPOWER LEADERS MARK END OF GREAT WAR
US President Trump snubs Paris Peace Forum after spat with Macron.
World leaders gathered in Paris to lead global commemorations yesterday to mark 100 years since the end of World War I at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.
About 70 leaders, including US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, marked the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital yesterday.
Ceremonies in New Zealand, Australia, India, Hong Kong and Myanmar marked the start of the memorial events worldwide for a conflict that involved millions of troops from colonised countries in Asia and Africa.
The leaders of Commonwealth nations, whose forces were deployed under British command 100 years ago, also sounded a message of peace and hope for the world in the new century.
“This was a war in which India was not directly involved, yet our soldiers fought world over, just for the cause of peace,” said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Twitter yesterday.
“For our tomorrows, they gave their today,” Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison told people gathered at the Remembrance Day national ceremony in Canberra.
The Paris commemorations, centred on the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier beneath the Arc de Triomphe, featured warnings about the modern-day danger of nationalism.
“This day is not just about remembering, but should be about a call to action,” German Chancellor Angela Merkel said on Saturday after visiting the forest clearing in northeastern France where the Armistice was signed.
Merkel gave the opening address, alongside UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at a conference called the Paris Peace Forum, which took place after a memorial service on the Champs-Elysees yesterday morning.
Conceived by French President Emmanuel Macron, the Forum is intended to highlight the importance of international institutions in helping resolve conflicts, avert wars and spread prosperity.
British Prime Minister Theresa May and Queen Elizabeth attended a separate event in London.
Despite the show of unity at the Arc de Triomphe, where school children read out messages written by soldiers in eight languages, tensions lurked beneath the surface.
Trump, whose hardline nationalism has badly shaken the Western alliance, arrived in Paris on Friday, criticising host Macron for being “insulting.”
Trump took umbrage at a recent interview in which Macron talked about the need for a European army and listed the US along with Russia and China as a threat to national security.
The “America First” leader, who faced criticism on Saturday for cancelling a trip to an American cemetery because of the rainy weather, snubbed the Paris Peace Forum.
Other attendees of the memorial service and Forum included Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Canadian premier Justin Trudeau, Israel’s Netanyahu and Putin.
With far-right nationalist politicians coming to power from Brazil to Italy to Austria, 40-yearold centrist Macron is set to invoke the war to make the case for international cooperation.