“Faced with China and the United States, France can no longer make weight alone,” according to former ambassador Michel Duclos

What do you think was the goal sought by Emmanuel Macron with this long trip to Asia?

President Macron’s philosophy is precisely to offer a “third way” between China and the United States. But in fact, it is difficult to offer a real one. France can play a useful, sometimes unifying role, but it remains an average power, of stabilization. It does not make the weight against the two giants, especially because its economy is fragile …

Can it count on Europe to embody this third way?

This is difficult to say, because Europe is also weakened by its economic situation. That said, we observe an evolution: some central European countries are now more favorably regarding an extended European deterrence, concerted – while they formerly feared it, for fear of upset Washington. This military fact is new since the American turning point initiated by Donald Trump on Ukraine. Europe can have more the means of its ambitions, and to establish closer links, in particular with its Asian partners.

Emmanuel Macron, who has always called for European strategic cooperation, can he establish himself as the leader of this European camp?

Paris continues to play a central role on the continent. It is still to France that several capitals turn to initiate diplomatic dynamics. Emmanuel Macron draws a notable advantage: he was right very early to call for a more independent and more powerful Europe on the military level.

But other events have also proven him wrong, including his bet on dialogue with Russia. His good relations with Friedrich Merz (The new German Chancellor, editor’s note) could constitute an asset, especially that it will undoubtedly be co-constructing European leadership around a Paris-Berlin-Varsovie axis.

In this context, Donald Trump rather represents an opportunity for Europe …

History remains to be written. But Trumpism constitutes a real risk for Europe: it could push the intermediate powers of Asia-Pacific to line up, willy-nilly, in the Chinese or American camp.

The temptation to conclude bilateral agreements with the United States-or get closer to an increasingly assertive China-is real. More than ever, Europe must offer a credible strategic offer, both competing and complementary to that of the United States. This is what we manage to do in areas like armaments, where France, and therefore Europe, appear as a serious alternative.

Can Europe still present itself as a power of balance, while criticism against the West are multiplying on its supposed double standard in terms of human rights-especially in the face of Israeli bombing on Gaza?

Gaza is indeed, today, one of the most powerful symbols of this fracture between the West and the Global South. It is fundamental to answer them. It is one of France’s ambitions, with the Franco-Saudi proposal that will be presented at the New York Conference in June.

This text will aim to recognize the state of Palestine and to relaunch a real peace process, in parallel to the reconstruction of Gaza (1). It is an essential diplomatic response to restore part of the credibility of the West.