Choose international order over ‘law of the jungle’, urges French Prez Macron
By R Anil Kumar
New York/Bengaluru, Sep 22, 2026. French President Emmanuel Macron said on September 22, that the world faces a stark choice: “Do we want to live…with a return to the law of the jungle – or do we want to live in a civilized international society?”
Addressing the General Assembly, Macron said France was committed to both the UN itself and a revival of multilateralism to “tackle common challenges together”.
Don’t give in to defeatism
Enumerating crises and wars, he declared, “we will not yield to defeatism.”
International law does not describe reality, but rather outlines the limits of acceptable behaviour, he said, adding that the forgotten lessons of the 20th century can be seen in the current wave of “industrialised” war crimes and a new era of barbarism.
“The Geneva Conventions are being dismantled”, he lamented, citing Sudan’s El Fasher and the destruction of Gaza, among other humanitarian crises. “There cannot be peace without justice,” though, and France will continue to support the International Court of Justice (ICJ), he said.
“We simply cannot accept this new order of impunity which some are trying to erect.”
In this vein, he expressed support for Security Council reform to boost effectiveness, which includes opening it up to new members – especially from Africa – and to allow it to take action in the face of mass violations of international law.
A significant portion of his speech was advocating for reducing divides between the North and the South, which he said was crucial to address climate change, health and development.
He acknowledged this would require reopening a dialogue about common history, cultural relationships and restorative justice.
Against violations of sovereignty
The French President strongly condemned “double standards” on the issue of sovereignty: “How many times have we heard that people’s sovereignty mattered in Europe, but that when it comes to the Middle East and Africa we could just as well do without it?”, he said.
“Every time some States wish to run roughshod over the will of certain peoples, to change a system, to topple a regime, every time this resulted in ever greater chaos,” he emphasised.
He reiterated support for Ukraine in the face of the Russian invasion and for restoring freedom of navigation in the Hormuz Strait.
He also stressed his support to Palestinians in both Gaza and the West Bank, saying that though some claim peace has been achieved in Gaza, humanitarian corridors have not materialised – earning him a round of applause.
Dialogue and multilateralism key to tackling global challenges France’s Macron says at UN, urging leaders not to accept ‘our world unraveling’
Deploring what he saw as a “deep crisis” of the traditional international order, French President Emmanuel Macron on Tuesday warned from the rostrum of the United Nations General Assembly against the temptation towards unilateralism and pleaded for a “new global balance”, crafted by all countries working together.
Faced with the world’s “new instability,” the French President advocated for the advent of a “new balance, based on new forms of regional and international cooperation”.
He reaffirmed key principles in this regard: respect for sovereignty, “the foundation of the Charter”, the strengthening of regional cooperation and the strengthening of international engagement through the United Nations.
He told leaders gathered in New York for the Assembly’s annual general debate that tackling the challenges of the day required adherance to “universal values, the non-negotiable defense of our values,” such as equality of individuals or gender equality.
Similarly, he argued, human rights “are not a cultural fact, but a body of law enshrined in international treaties”.
Enhanced cooperation
He expressed deep belief in the sovereignty of peoples and, at the same time, enhanced cooperation with multilateral forums and “renewed legitimacy of the United Nations.”
Mr. Macron cited several examples of such cooperation related to conflicts, where solutions must be “driven by the Astana Process Guarantors, other regional States or others, and under the auspices of the United Nations”.
Similarly, in the face of terrorism, he said “we are strong when States can count on their own strengths and rely on forms of regional cooperation”.
In this regard, he called for “a better articulation between the United Nations and the African Union” and called for the adoption of a relevant Security Council resolution “before the end of the year”.
Multilateralism in retreat
“At a time where our collective system is falling apart, sadly, it is most in demand,” he said, adding that France would continue to remind everyone that nationalism always leads to defeat.
“Only collective action allows for the upholding of sovereignty and equality,” Mr. Macron said. “This is the reason we must take action against climate, demographic and digital challenges. No one alone can tackle these.”
Acknowledging that some might be tired of multilateralism, he implored people to resist the urge to view it as “trendy”. It was genocide that led to the United Nations, he said, recalling the atrocities of the Second World War and the complacency of the international community at that time. But France is a country that has always fought for universality, he said, imploring people to not succumb to indifference and to not accept history unravelling. “Our children are watching,” he said. “Let us do this on a human level.”
AI independence
A last section of his speech focused on the dangers of AI, and specifically on the fact that the vast majority of people and countries appear to have no voice in the debate over AI regulation.
He stressed that it should not be left only to the US and China, and a handful of private actors. The stakes are too high, he added, over a technology which could threaten “the security of our States, of our hospitals, of our banks”.
