President Emmanuel Macron presented this Monday, at the Élysée, in front of French ambassadors, his foreign policy priorities in 2025. A traditional annual address, while the start of the year is marked by multiple crises in the world, from Ukraine in the Middle East.
Emmanuel Macron first accused, without mentioning him by name, the boss of X, Elon Musk, of supporting “a new reactionary international” and of interference in the elections, particularly in Germany. “Ten years ago, if we had been told that the owner of one of the largest social networks in the world would support a new reactionary international movement and intervene directly in elections, including in Germany, who would have imagined it? “, he said, in reference to the American billionaire’s continued support for the German far-right party, AfD.
As for Donald Trump, he “knows that he has a solid ally in France, an ally whom he does not disesteem”, “who believes in Europe” and has a “lucid ambition” for the transatlantic relationship, declared the French president, two weeks before the arrival of his future American counterpart at the White House.
“From 2016 to 2020, France knew how to work with President Trump,” underlined the head of state. “If we decide to be weak and defeatist, there is little chance of being respected by the United States of America of President Trump”, “it is up to us to know how to cooperate with the choice that was made by the people American,” he added. However, he warned of a “very significant risk” of “regression” in the collective effort to protect the environment and the fight against global warming with the Republican’s return to the White House.
No “respite” in the fight against terrorism
On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the Islamist attack which decimated the editorial staff of “Charlie Hebdo”, Emmanuel Macron also called for the fight against terrorism to continue without “relaxation”, without “respite”. “We know that terrorism is a risk which remains significant in our societies and which requires no relaxation and collective vigilance,” he insisted.
“We forgot to say thank you,” also regretted the Head of State regarding the interventions carried out since 2013 by France against terrorism in Africa, in the Sahel. Paris was “right” to intervene militarily, he argued, estimating that no leader of the continent “would be with a sovereign country today if the French army had not been deployed”. According to him, “France is not in decline in Africa, it is simply lucid, it is reorganizing itself”.
Still on the subject of Africa, he considered that Algeria was “disgracing itself” by not releasing the Franco-Algerian writer Boualem Sansal, arrested in mid-November in Algiers. “The Algeria that we love so much and with which we share so many children and so many stories is entering into a story that dishonors it, preventing a seriously ill man from getting treatment. This is not up to what it is,” he said, “urging its government to release” the author, a long-time critic of Algerian power.
No “naivety” in the face of “regime change” in Syria
On Syria, the president called for “looking without naivety at the change of regime”, after the fall of Bashar al-Assad in early December, and promised not to “abandon” the Kurdish fighters allied with the West in the fight against terrorism. France will support “over the long term” the transition in favor of “a sovereign Syria, free and respectful of its ethnic, political and confessional plurality”, he assured.
He also estimated that Iran constituted the “main strategic and security challenge” in the Middle East, and that this issue would be a priority in the dialogue he will initiate with the new American administration of Donald Trump. “Iran is the main strategic and security challenge for France, the Europeans, the entire region and well beyond,” he declared, adding that “the acceleration of its nuclear program brings us very close to the breaking point. He also denounced Tehran’s involvement “in Russia’s war against Ukraine”, its “support for dangerous groups on all areas of confrontation in the Middle East” and even “its attempts to deploy in Africa” .
On Ukraine, the “credibility” of Westerners at stake
Regarding the war in Ukraine, there “will be no quick and easy solution,” warned the head of state. “The new American president himself knows that the United States has no chance of winning anything if Ukraine loses”, and a “surrender of Ukraine cannot be good for the Europeans and the Americans “, he insisted again.
For Emmanuel Macron, the “credibility” of Westerners would be “undermined” if they agree to “compromise” due to “fatigue” of the conflict. He also called on “the Ukrainians to hold realistic discussions on territorial issues”, while Russia, which has taken possession of some 20% of Ukraine, is increasing its conquests in the East. “The United States of America will have to help us change the nature of the situation and convince Russia to come to the negotiating table,” while the Europeans will have to “build security guarantees” for kyiv, “which will be their primary responsibility,” he said.
Guarantees which arise largely from the defense strategy of the 27. According to Emmanuel Macron, Europeans must move “much faster and much stronger” to strengthen their industry in the face of rising threats. “The question is whether Europeans want, for the next 20 years, to produce what will be necessary for their security or not”, because “if we depend on the American industrial and technological defense base, then we will have cruel dilemmas and culpable strategic dependencies,” he said.
Another European issue: the agreement with Mercosur, criticized by French farmers who are mobilizing again in recent days. The “mass is not said” regarding the conclusion of the controversial trade agreement with South American countries. “We will continue to vigorously defend the coherence of our commitments,” promised the Head of State.
