Despite the outcry, Macron is right about Europe – and much else

He could well be remembered for his vision of Europe as a distinct strategic player in a world still making the difficult transition from the Cold War order to something more complex, writes Mary Dejevsky

Macron infuriated not just sections of US opinion, but opinion in those EU members most wedded to the Atlantic alliance (AP)

You can question the French president’s decision to make state visits to China and the Netherlands while his country remains mired in street protests and strikes, but the outcry that has met some of what he said and did on his travels – an outcry it should be said, expressed mainly in the English language – reflects a view of the world that is parochial, needlessly defensive, and stuck in the past.

The first objection, voiced in Washington by the UK’s former prime minister and foreign secretary, Liz Truss, was that Emmanuel Macron went to China at all – not because of any difficulties at home, but because his red-carpet trip could be seen as pandering to an adversary and exposing divisions in the supposedly united Western bloc.

But what, you might ask, would have been preferable? Macron’s China visit came less than a month after Xi Jinping’s state visit to Russia. Is the international diplomatic field to be left to a new and exclusive Russia-China entente? Is it really in Western – US, UK, EU – interests to ostracise a country that we trade with – so long as we look to our own interests – to shared advantage?