Macron urges world to 'stand firm' against 'abuse of power by empires' in final UN speech

French President Emmanuel Macron called Tuesday for countries to recommit to international laws and the UN system over a resurgent "law of the jungle".

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Macron, giving his last speech to the UN's signature annual diplomatic gathering as president, also railed against the humanitarian situation in Gaza while calling for a moratorium on strikes against civilian and energy targets in the Ukraine-Russia war.

"The question put to us, in very simple terms, is whether we want to live in this state of nature, with a kind of return to the law of the jungle, or in a civilised international society," he said.

"My message is to stand firm. Do not yield to the situation which is developing ... The rhetoric of defeat that is giving way to abuse of power by empires, threatening the sovereignty of some nations," Macron said.

The French president, who has been a long-standing supporter of Ukraine and raised the country's case in a meeting with US President Donald Trump on Monday, called for Moscow and Kyiv to agree to a moratorium on striking civilian and energy targets. 

'Barbaric acts'

"We've seen the destruction of civilian infrastructure, human rights violations. It's a new era of barbaric acts," he said.

"We must protect the civilian population, and this is why we'd like to express our support for a double moratorium, a moratorium on strikes on energy and civilian infrastructure," he added. He also called for a moratorium of attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea, a crucial sea route for both countries' grain exports.

Macron at one point hammered the rostrum as he spoke about the humanitarian crisis in the devastated Gaza Strip.

"What is our credibility worth if we remain inactive on Gaza? Some claim that peace has been achieved, but this has not opened up humanitarian deliveries. It is a spectacle that shames us all," he said.

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In a stark contrast to Trump's rejection of global AI regulation in his own address hours before, the French president called for countries to work together on building an open-source frontier artificial intelligence model independent of the "great powers" – China and the United States.

"I don't want anyone to become the vassal of one of the great powers. Rather, we must come together to build an open-source frontier model, a cutting-edge model," he said.