Macron criticises Washington: 'US deviates from international rules'

"I cannot get used to what we are experiencing". Emmanuel Macron's words in his annual address to French ambassadors marked - more than on other occasions - how rapidly international relations are changing. They are not, however, an expression of disorientation, nor even of resignation in the face of a reality that might appear to be an inevitable destiny; rather, they are the concluding comment on his attempt to forcefully update the international strategy of France - this year holding the presidency of the G-7 - which has long aimed at giving the country, and Europe, a more active role, opening up a new phase.

In condemning the 'new colonialism and the new imperialism' Macron has moved from the simple tactic of 'covering the gaps' left by the progressive US disengagement - aggressive with Donald Trump, softer with Barack Obama and Joe Biden - to a proactive and culturally all-European approach to international relations.

The tones were very sharp: no longer, as in the past, towards China and Russia alone, but above all towards the US president who is 'progressively distancing himself' from certain allies and 'emancipating himself from international rules'. France and Europe - 'the only space where we continue to remember what the rules of the game are' - are faced with a 'disintegrating world': the solution is 'effective multilateralism', which is also France's programme for its G7 presidency, an understanding with the major emerging countries to reform world governance and the UN in this sense. "We reject the new colonialism and the new imperialism", but "we also reject happy vassalisation" and "defeatism", Macron said. "We live in a world of great powers, with a real temptation to divide up the world," he added.

France has already objected to Washington's coup d'état in Venezuela - not least because the area includes the French department of Guyane, not very populated but as large as Italy and important for the space strategy of the whole of Europe - and the US president's repeated claims on Greenland. The United States has now become a power that 'progressively distances itself from some of its allies and frees itself from the international rules it was promoting until recently', said Emmanuel Macron, evoking a 'neo-colonial aggression'.

Beijing and Moscow were not spared: China for its 'increasingly uninhibited commercial aggressiveness' and Russia as a 'destabilising power' in Ukraine.