The Laotian Times/AFP’s Damon Wake and Francesco Fontemaggi – French President Emmanuel Macron on 30 May speaking at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore urged Europe and Asia to build a new alliance to counter the growing power game between China, Russia and the United States in the region.
Defence chiefs and officials from around the world attend Asia’s leading annual defense and security conference. In recent years, the forum has served as a key indicator of US-China relations.
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth addressed the conference on 31 May, following renewed tariff pressure on China from President Trump.
He warned that the US is prepared to “fight and win” if deterrence fails, urging allies to increase defense spending amid escalating tensions in the South China Sea and Taiwan. Hegseth criticized China’s absence in the meeting and pledged to counter its influence.
China has not sent its defense minister to Shangri-La, and was instead represented by a senior officer from its People’s Liberation Army’s National Defense University.
Since 2019, Beijing has regularly sent its defense minister to the Shangri-La meet, occasions that offered rare opportunities to hold face-to-face talks with US counterparts.
Build a New Alliance
Macron’s speech came at the end of a tour of Vietnam, Indonesia and Singapore, which he used to present France as a reliable alternative for a region caught between Washington and Beijing.
Asian countries have found themselves torn between Washington’s tariff threats on one hand and Beijing, a major trading partner that has become increasingly forthright in territorial disputes in the South China Sea.
Tensions between the US and China have ramped up since Trump returned to office in January, off the back of an escalating trade standoff, intensified technological rivalry, and strategic military posturing.
Macron urged leaders at the conference to “build a positive new alliance between Europe and Asia, based on our common norms, on our common principles”.
“Our shared responsibility is to ensure with others that our countries are not collateral victims of the imbalances linked to the choices made by the superpowers,” he said.
Kill Our Credibility
Macron also weighed in on the conflict in Gaza, warning that abandoning the Palestinian enclave would kill the West’s credibility with the rest of the world.
“If we abandon Gaza, if we consider there is a free pass for Israel, even if we do condemn the terrorist attacks, we will kill our credibility,” he said.
His comments came as Israel accused him of undertaking a “crusade against the Jewish state” after he called for European countries to harden their stance on Israel if the humanitarian situation in Gaza did not improve.
Beyond the tensions in Gaza and Ukraine, the recent clashes between India and Pakistan will lurk in the shadows of the conference, which runs until 1 June.
Beyond the West
A 22 April attack on tourists in Indian-administered Kashmir triggered some of the worst cross-border clashes between the nuclear-armed neighbors in years, with at least 70 people killed.
Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both countries. New Delhi accused Pakistan of backing the attack, a charge Islamabad denies.
Neither side has sent their defense ministers, instead dispatching senior military delegations. No meeting between the two sides has been announced.
© Agence France-Presse