French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday strongly criticised the foreign policy of the United States (US) under President Donald Trump, accusing Washington of "breaking free from international rules" and "turning away" from some of its allies. Macron said that there is a strong temptation to divide the world, which has some great powers.
The 48-year-old French president made the remarks while speaking at the annual Ambassadors' Conference in Paris.
France has rejected the idea of "new colonialism and new imperialism", said Macron, adding that his country and the entire Europe have achieved "greater strategic autonomy, and less dependence" on the US and China, which he called a "step in the right direction".
"The US is an established power, but one that is gradually turning away from some of its allies and breaking free from the very international rules that it was until recently promoting," he said.
German leader takes at dig at Trump
Macron's remarks comes a day after German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier also took a dig at Trump's foreign policy and said that the current behaviour of the US represented a second historic rupture. Speaking at a symposium in Berlin on Wednesday evening, Steinmeier said that smaller and weaker nations are becoming 'completely defenceless'.
"Then, there is the breakdown of values by our most important partner, the United States, which helped build this world order," the German president said. "It is about preventing the world from turning into a den of thieves, where the most unscrupulous take what they want, where regions or entire countries are treated as the property of some great powers."
Rising tensions between US, Europe
Tensions have soared between the US and European leaders over Trump's threat to acquire Greenland, which is an autonomous Danish territory. Greenland, with a population of around 57,000 people, has a lot of untapped rare earth minerals, and oil and gas. Additionally, it could give an edge to the US in denying Russia strategic influence in the region.
The US has said that the use of military force is also an option to acquire Greenland. On Wednesday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that he will also meet Danish officials next week to discuss Greenland. However, the Danish government has warned the US that its troops "will open fire even without orders" if American troops try to capture Greenland by force.
