MUNICH (AFP) - France's President Emmanuel Macron on Friday (Feb 13) defended Europe as an example to follow, as the continent seeks to rebuild strained ties with the United States.
"Everyone should take their cue from us, instead of criticising us," he said at the Munich Security Conference, after US Vice President JD Vance used his address at the annual gathering last year to attack European policies on immigration and free speech.
"I believe that Europe is inherently strong and can be made even stronger yet," he added.
There had been a tendency "to overlook Europe, and sometimes, to criticise it outright", to vilify it "as an aging, slow, fragmented construct", as "a society prey to barbaric migrations", and even "as a repressive continent where speech would not be free", he said.
Instead, "Europe is a radically original political construction of free sovereign states" that gave up centuries of rivalry and war "to institutionalise peace through economic interdependence".
Now, "Europe has to learn to become a geopolitical power", he added.
Macron said France supported US President Donald Trump's "drive towards a negotiated peace" to end Russia's war in Ukraine that started in February 2022.
But if a settlement is reached to end Europe's worst conflict since World War II, the continent would need to "define rules of coexistence that limit the risk of escalation", Macron warned.
"We should articulate among Europeans our real long-term security interests in our region, and give ourselves the metal and the clout to prosecute them, and at the same time fortify ourselves as confident democracies," the French president said.
"This Europe will be a good ally and partner for the United States of America," he added.
"Because it will be a partner taking its fair share of the burden. It will be a partner being respected."
Macron last month said France preferred "respect to bullies" after Trump's vow to impose levies on countries opposing his threat to seize Greenland, an autonomous Danish territory. The US leader has since backed down and started talks with Denmark.