Fighting “Islamist terrorism” is France’s top priority, President Emmanuel Macron said Tuesday in a key foreign policy speech.
“Providing security for our citizens means that the fight against Islamist terrorism is our first priority,” he told some 200 French ambassadors gathered in Paris.
Since early 2015, France has suffered a series of terror attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives.
The 39-year-old leader also insisted there was “no alternative” to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran, which has been fiercely opposed by US President Donald Trump.
“There is no alternative to the non-proliferation agenda. It enables a constructive and demanding relationship with Iran,” he said.
Facing dismal approval ratings less than four months into his term, Macron was looking to burnish his foreign policy credentials with the speech, which is a fixture on France’s political calendar. France’s youngest ever president has shown determination to restore what he sees as the country’s declining international prestige under his predecessor, Socialist president Francois Hollande.
He has won kudos for making a bold start on the international stage, hosting both Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin within his first weeks in office.
He raised human rights with Putin and spoke out against Trump’s decision to withdraw the United States from the Paris accord on fighting climate change.
Tuesday’s speech came a day after Macron hosted a mini-summit with African and European leaders on the migrant crisis.
The leaders backed proposals to screen asylum seekers in Chad and Niger as a way to prevent thousands from taking perilous journeys across the Mediterranean.
Reuters adds: President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday France would continue to push for intransigent policies towards North Korea’s ballistic program and was ready to undertake new initiatives after its latest “irresponsible” ballistic missile launch.
North Korea fired a ballistic missile over Japan’s northern Hokkaido island into the sea early on Tuesday, prompting warnings to residents to take cover and drawing a sharp reaction from Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.
PARIS (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday said there was no alternative to the 2015 deal struck between Iran and a group of world powers aimed at curbing the country’s nuclear program.
In a message aimed at U.S. President Donald Trump, who has ordered a review of the lifting of sanctions after the agreement and called it “the worst deal ever negotiated,” Macron told French ambassadors that the agreement was good. “There is no alternative to the regime on nuclear non-proliferation,” he said. “In the context of what we are living through, the 2015 agreement is what allows us establish a constructive and demanding dialogue with Iran.”
French President Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday a contact group on Syria will meet at the United Nations in New York in September, as he called the fight against Islamist terrorism the priority of his foreign policy.
In an opening speech to the annual gathering of French ambassadors at the Elysee palace, Macron said the “main players” of the Syrian crisis would be involved, without elaborating. It remained unclear what the purpose of the new group would be and how it differed to previous contact groups.
Macron said cooperation with Russia had yielded “concrete results” on curtailing the use of chemical weapons in Syria. He gave no details.
