Macron warns of ‘double standards’ in global conflicts

French President Emmanuel Macron urged the international community to avoid “double standards” in global conflicts, including in the Middle East and Ukraine, as he opened a summit of French-speaking leaders.

On Friday, Macron insisted that French-speaking countries could together make a major contribution to world peace, even as analysts say France’s global influence is waning, particularly in Africa.

“I deeply believe that the French-speaking world is, yes, a place where we can have together a diplomacy that defends sovereignty and territorial integrity everywhere on the planet,” Macron said.

“It is a country that speaks the same language on Ukraine, which is today attacked and threatened in its borders and in its territorial integrity by the Russian war of aggression,” he said.

“But it also champions a vision that there is no room for double standards, where all lives are equal in all conflicts across the world,” he added.

Macron had previously expressed concern over Israel’s campaign in Lebanon against targets of the Shiite militant group Hezbollah, saying the number of civilian casualties was “absolutely shocking”.

In his speech, he said Lebanon, a former French colony, was “today shaken in its sovereignty and its peace” as the conflict between Israel and Hezbollah intensifies.

“There can be no peace in the Middle East without a two-state solution” between Israel and the Palestinians, he added.

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Macron also called for a “peaceful region” in the Indo-Pacific “where no power can question this peace,” referring to China, without naming it.

Leaders gathered Friday at a château in Villers-Cotterets northeast of Paris and Saturday in the French capital for the “Francophonie” summit, the first time the event has taken place in France in 33 years.