Macron to Visit Netherlands amid Row over China Comments

French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
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Macron to Visit Netherlands amid Row over China Comments

French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)
French President Emmanuel Macron (Reuters)

French President Emmanuel Macron begins a state visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday featuring a speech on Europe that will be keenly watched after his controversial remarks on its ties with the US and China.

Macron, freshly returned from a visit to China last week, sparked criticism after saying in an interview published Sunday that Europe must not be a "follower" of either Washington or Beijing on Taiwan, AFP said.

His comments threaten to overshadow a two-day visit to the Netherlands that is meant to highlight a new dynamic between Paris and The Hague after the turning point of Brexit.

Macron, who is accompanied by his wife Brigitte and seven ministers, will dine with Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima, see the hot-ticket Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte on a canal boat.

But eyes will now be on the French president's speech on "European sovereignty" in security and economic matters on Tuesday afternoon at the Dutch Nexus institute in The Hague.

He will use the address to present "a doctrine of economic security" against China and the United States, amid European unease over US climate subsidies.

The speech comes after Macron said in an interview with media including French business daily Les Echos and Politico that "we don't want to depend on others on critical issues", citing energy, artificial intelligence and social networks.

Macron's comments in the same interview on Taiwan, that Europe risks entanglement in "crises that aren't ours" and should "depend less on the Americans" in matters of defense, have raised questions, like his past remarks on Ukraine.

'Brain death'
"The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction," Macron said after his three-day state visit to Beijing.

"A brain death has occurred somewhere, no doubt," said the director of the Polish Institute of International Relations (PISM), Slawomir Debski, referring to the formulation used by the French president to describe NATO in 2019.

But the White House said Monday it was "confident" in the relationship with France despite Macron's comments.

In the wake of the speech, Paris and The Hague will sign a "pact for innovation" on Wednesday focusing on cooperation in semiconductors, quantum physics and energy.

France and the Netherlands will also work to finalize a defense pact by 2024.

The visit is also meant to seal the growing closeness between two countries that were once at opposite ends of the European spectrum on frugality and social spending.

"Since the start of the war in Ukraine, positions have converged," particularly on European sovereignty, noted the Elysee Palace.

The visit was the "expression of a Franco-Dutch rapprochement" that resulted from the Netherlands losing its traditional EU ally, Britain, due to Brexit, it added.

Macron's is the first state visit by a French leader to the Netherlands since 2000. The Dutch royals paid a state visit to France in 2016.

The French president's domestic political troubles also threaten to intrude on the visit, with a new day of strikes against his pension reform plans planned for Thursday.



Iranian Minister Arrives in Russia with a Message from Khamenei

FILED - 04 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
FILED - 04 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
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Iranian Minister Arrives in Russia with a Message from Khamenei

FILED - 04 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa
FILED - 04 October 2024, Lebanon, Beirut: Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi attends a meeting in Beirut. Photo: Marwan Naamani/dpa

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi landed in Moscow on Thursday to deliver a message from Iran's Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Iranian state media reported.

US President Donald Trump has repeatedly threatened Iran with bombing and secondary tariffs if Tehran does not come to an agreement with Washington over its disputed nuclear program, and the United States has moved additional warplanes into the region.

The US and Iran held talks in Oman last weekend that both sides described as positive and constructive. Ahead of a second round of talks set to take place in Rome this weekend, Araghchi said on Wednesday that Iran's right to enrich uranium is not negotiable, reported Reuters.

Araghchi’s Telegram account posted a video of him arriving in Moscow.

Western powers say Iran is refining uranium to a high degree of fissile purity beyond what is justifiable for a civilian energy program and close to the level suitable for an atomic bomb. Iran has long denied seeking nuclear weapons.

Russia has said that any military strike against Iran would be illegal and unacceptable. The Kremlin on Tuesday declined to comment when asked if Russia was ready to take control of Iran's stocks of enriched uranium as part of a possible future nuclear deal between Iran and the United States.