He arrived a little late. French President Emmanuel Macron spoke on Tuesday, September 22, before the United Nations General Assembly for his last as president.
The tenant of the Élysée warned against the “return of the law of the jungle” in the world and called for people to stand “straight alongside the United Nations”.
“The question that is posed to us in a very simple way is whether we want to live in this state of nature, with a form of return of the law of the jungle or in a civilized international society,” he declared at the podium of the UN General Assembly. “Our duty more than ever is to stand tall alongside the United Nations to decide precisely together on the common interest,” he added.
The French president also spoke about the war in Ukraine. France supports “a double moratorium” on strikes against energy sites in Russia and Ukraine, said Emmanuel Macron.
“We support the initiative of a double moratorium, a moratorium on energy and civil infrastructure on both sides,” said the French president. He also called for “a moratorium on the Black Sea which will free up cereals and provide an answer to the question of food security which is so crucial for so many emerging and developing countries”.
Regarding the situation in the Middle East, Emmanuel Macron defended the two-state solution for the Palestinians and Israelis, stressing that it would be unacceptable to “contemplate this spectacle which shames us all” in Gaza and the West Bank without taking action. “What is our credibility if we continue to remain inactive in the face of Gaza?” launched the French president, stressing that building a two-state solution was the condition for “the security of today and tomorrow for Israel and its people”.
“Don’t give in” to the “spirit of defeat” and “abuse of power”
The French head of state called on Tuesday from the UN podium to “give in nothing” to the “spirit of defeat” and “abuse of power” and to restore the “vitality” of the United Nations to stop a “slow division of the world”.
“Don’t give in to what is taking hold, which is basically a slow division of the world, a spirit of defeat (…) which would leave some in the abuse of power,” he said, citing the “empires which threaten the sovereignty” of others and “a few” who would like to “concentrate wealth”. “We must rediscover the vitality of our Organization, this multilateralism which is the defense of a common interest, justice for all,” he added.
The French president also spoke on artificial intelligence. He urged on Tuesday all states “attached to their independence” to develop alternative artificial intelligence (AI) in order to depend neither on the United States nor on China.
“This coalition of independents (…) who do not want to become vassals of one or the other of the two great world powers – must come together to develop an ‘open source’ frontier model (advanced AI accessible to all) by pooling the computing capacities that are at their disposal, by pooling their investment capacities (to create an AI) that we would share”, he declared. “We must not depend on one or the other.”
With AFP
