Overview

• Macron delivered the keynote address at the Shangri-La Dialogue in Singapore, becoming the first European leader to open Asia’s premier defense forum.
• He urged European and Asian nations to forge a “third way” coalition independent of US-China rivalry to uphold a rules-based international order.
• Macron cautioned that failing to support Ukraine risks compromising the West’s deterrence credibility against potential Chinese aggression toward Taiwan.
• He pressed Beijing to prevent North Korean military assistance to Russia’s war, warning that such support could prompt NATO’s expansion into Asia.
• France signed a preliminary defense pact with Indonesia even as the US threatened triple-digit tariffs on China and Beijing sent a lower-level military delegation to the summit.