Macron urges UN members to defend international law
In his final General Assembly address as France’s president, Emmanuel Macron proposed limits on attacks in the Russia-Ukraine war and called for action over Gaza.
French President Emmanuel Macron has urged countries to reaffirm their support for the United Nations and international law, warning against what he described as a return to the “law of the jungle”.
Speaking in his final address to the UN General Assembly as president, Macron said nations should resist what he called the “abuse of power by empires” and the erosion of national sovereignty.
He proposed a double moratorium in the Russia-Ukraine war covering strikes on civilian and energy infrastructure. Macron also called for a moratorium on attacks against commercial shipping in the Black Sea, a key route for grain exports from both countries.
Macron, a long-standing supporter of Ukraine, had raised the conflict with US President Donald Trump before the address. The supplied material does not indicate whether Russia, Ukraine or other governments accepted his proposals.
He also condemned what he described as inaction over Gaza, arguing that the humanitarian situation and lack of deliveries undermined the credibility of the international system.
In a separate proposal, Macron called for countries to cooperate on an open-source frontier artificial intelligence model independent of China and the United States. The proposal contrasted with Donald Trump’s rejection of global AI regulation in his address earlier that day.
