France's President Emmanuel Macron plans to deliver a speech outlining his vision for the future of Europe during a two-day state visit to the Netherlands that started on Tuesday.
The afternoon speech in a theater in The Hague comes after Macron raised eyebrows with comments about Taiwan following his recent visit to China.
“The question we need to answer, as Europeans, is the following: Is it in our interest to accelerate (a crisis) on Taiwan? No,” Macron was quoted as saying in an interview published Sunday in French newspaper Les Echos and by Politico Europe.
“The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must become followers on this topic and take our cue from the U.S. agenda and a Chinese overreaction.”
The remarks raised questions about whether Macron's views are in line with the EU's position and whether the 27-nation bloc can become the "third great power" that Macron says he hopes to build in "a few years".
The interview was on Friday, just before China launched large-scale combat exercises around Taiwan to simulate a lockdown of the island in retaliation for the Taiwanese president's trip to the United States last week.
Macron and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen visited Beijing last week for talks and urged Chinese leader Xi Jinping to "bring Russia back to its senses" over its war in Ukraine.
He stressed the concept of "strategic autonomy" for Europe that he had promoted for years.
The French president warned of what he called a "trap" that might lead the bloc to "getting caught up in crises that are not ours.”
Macron's trip to Amsterdam and The Hague is the first state visit by a French leader since Jacques Chirac 23 years ago and underscores the close ties between the Netherlands, France and the two leaders.
Follow the latest news on Google News
