Acting to ‘detriment’ of allies

Macron says Trump acting to ‘detriment’ of allies

The EU’s ‘energy does not have to be absorbed’ by Brexit, French president says.

By MAXIME SCHLEE

The bromance is officially over.

Emmanuel Macron told Argentine newspaper La Nacion that while the alliance between France and the U.S. is “historic,” some of President Donald Trump’s recent decisions “have been done to the detriment of his allies.”

“In these situations, I always clearly affirmed the French and European positions,” the French president said. “It is in these times of crisis when we have to defend our common values, which depend on multilateralism and cooperation.”

Speaking from Buenos Aires, where he arrived Wednesday for the G20 summit, Macron warned against the risk of a “tête-à-tête between China and the United States and a trade war that is destructive for everyone.”

The French president stressed that the EU has become more united, noting, “When the EU was attacked by the U.S. trade measures, it reacted immediately, in a united way. This would not have happened a few years ago.”

He also addressed Brexit, arguing that Britain’s exit from the EU made the bloc “aware of all that our union brings us, which is consolidated peace and freedom.”

The EU, he said, should not be consumed “by the separation, but by the union,” noting the bloc is now working to increase its security, defense and border control capabilities as well as improving its environmental protections. The U.K., he added, will be “at our side — as Theresa May says, she is leaving the EU, but not Europe.”

But on a darker note, Macron said the world is on the brink of failing to tackle “the two biggest challenges in the world today and also the main points of tension: climate and trade.”

Trump pulled the U.S. out of the Paris climate accord last year, and has made it clear that he has no intention of honoring the commitments made by his predecessor, Barack Obama.

Macron also said that if the G20 doesn’t make progress on reform proposals for the World Trade Organization, international summits risk becoming “useless and even counterproductive.”

The EU together with 11 countries earlier this week brought forward a proposal to modernize the WTO’s highest court in an attempt to pacify Washington, which is blocking the appointment of judges to the Appellate Body.