Amsterdam-French President Emmanuel Macron began a state visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday to give a speech on European sovereignty. Making the first state visit by a French president to the Netherlands for 23 years, Macron and his wife Brigitte were greeted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on their arrival in Amsterdam.
The French leader stood to attention alongside the Dutch royals outside the Royal Palace as a band played the Marseillaise, the French national anthem. A few people cheered as Macron’s car arrived, an AFP journalist said. But amid the pomp and ceremony, all eyes are on Macron’s comments on China, which he visited last week. The Elysee Palace insisted Tuesday that the president had never called for Europe to keep an “equidistance” from the United States and China. Macron is due to make a speech in English on “European sovereignty” in security and economic matters on Tuesday afternoon at the Dutch Nexus Institute in The Hague.
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The speech comes after he said in an interview with media including French business daily Les Echos and Politico that “we don’t want to depend on others on critical issues.”