HANOI: Between jabs at Donald Trump’s US trade tariffs and criticism of Beijing’s assertiveness in the South China Sea, French President Emmanuel Macron warned Vietnamese students Tuesday that “on the impulse of a superpower, everything can change.”
Macron is in Vietnam as part of a six-day Southeast Asian tour that includes Indonesia and Singapore, as he tries to pitch his offer of a “third way” between the United States and China to a region caught up in a confrontation between the two.
“The conflict between China and the United States of America is a geopolitical fact that casts the shadow of risk of a much larger conflict in this important region,” he told a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi, listening through translation headsets.
China would do well to remember that “freedom of navigation, maritime freedom is important for the South China Sea,” he said, adding that what is happening there “worries everyone.”
Macron quickly moved on to a swipe at the United States, which he described as “imposing tariffs according to the side of the bed on which he woke up,” before presenting France as a reliable alternative.
His address comes a day after he visited a Hanoi war memorial to those who fought against French colonial occupation, which ended in 1954 following a bloody uprising by Vietnamese pro-independence forces.
Vietnam has been careful to follow a balancing act between China and the United States.
It shares concerns about Beijing’s increasing assertiveness in the contested waterway, but it has close economic ties with its giant neighbor.
Communist-run Vietnam has also been threatened with a hefty 46 percent tariff by US President Donald Trump as part of his global trade blitz.
France’s “Indo-Pacific strategy” could offer a “path of freedom” and “sovereignty,” Macron told the students.
More than 100 other students who were unable to fit into the university hall where he spoke tuned in via video link from a side room, often clapping as he spoke.
Some seemed convinced, seeing an opportunity in France to avoid the chaos that many international students in the United States are enduring after Trump attempted to block Harvard University from enrolling foreigners.
“Given the context in the US where visa issues for international students are quite risky, I will prioritize studying in France because it is more stable,” 21-year-old Nguyen Quang Bach told AFP.
Nguyen Thi Thuy Linh, 21, who chatted to Macron ahead of the speech, called the president “friendly and approachable.”
During the speech, Macron also urged the students, a few of whom spoke French, not to fall into the “world of fools” that prevails on social media, where people are free to criticize with short messages “those whose thoughts you do not understand.”
“I do not believe all words are equal. I think there are people who know (things) and people who know less,” he said.
Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers
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Macron gives Vietnamese students a lesson in ‘impulsive’ superpowers
- French President Emmanuel Macron speaks to a group of around 150 students at the University of Science and Technology in Hanoi
Philippines probes Bondi Beach suspects’ visit, downplays militant training reports
- Suspects spent 4 weeks in the Philippines last month
- Govt says no evidence visit linked to militant activity
MANILA: The Philippine National Police launched on Wednesday a probe into the recent visit to the country of a father and son whom Australian authorities have identified as suspects in last week’s mass shooting in Sydney.
Two gunmen killed 15 people and wounded dozens of others during Hanukkah celebrations at Sydney’s Bondi Beach on Sunday.
The suspected shooters, identified by Australian authorities as Sajid Akram and his son Naveed Akram, traveled to the Philippines last month.
The news has prompted various media outlets to speculate that there are links between their visit and the Sydney attack — an allegation Manila has since denied.
The investigation launched by the Philippine police seeks to establish the purpose of the suspects’ travel and their movement while in the country.
“This matter is being investigated as we seek to determine the reason behind their visit to the Philippines. We are finding out which places they went to, who they talked to, and where they stayed while they were in the country,” Philippine National Police acting chief Lt. Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said in a statement.
Bureau of Immigration data shows that 50-year-old Akram and his 24-year-old son arrived in the Philippines from Sydney on Nov. 1. They left the country on Nov. 28 via a connecting flight from Davao in the southern Philippines to Manila, with Sydney as their final destination.
According to a police statement, Philippine authorities, including the government and military, said there was no evidence the trip was related to any militant activity in the country and was “not considered as a serious security concern.”
Australian media reports linking the suspects to Daesh and alleging the group used the Philippines as its training ground were denied by the Philippine government.
“Information from operating units on the ground indicates no ongoing training and recruitment,” Department of National Defense spokesperson Arsenio Andolong told Arab News.
“There is no indication of imminent domestic terrorist threats.”
Presidential Communications Office Undersecretary and Palace Press Officer Claire Castro also dismissed the claims as “misleading” and “portraying the Philippines as a training hotspot for violent extremist groups.”
She told reporters that the National Security Council “maintained there is no confirmation to allegations that the father-and-son suspects in the recent mass shooting in Bondi Beach, Sydney, Australia, received training in the Philippines.”
Castro added that Philippine security forces “have significantly weakened” Daesh-affiliated groups since the 2017 Marawi siege.
The southern Philippine city in Mindanao island was in 2017 taken over by groups affiliated with Daesh. After five months of fighting and hundreds of deaths, the Philippine army reclaimed the area.
“Both UN and the US government assessments indicate that these groups now operate in a fragmented and diminished capacity,” Castro said.
“Violence in Mindanao is largely driven by historical conflicts and local clan disputes rather than the operational capacity of ISIS-affiliated organizations.”
