ARTICLES  

Inheriting from the tradition of an independent multilateral diplomacy developed by De Gaulle, former President of the Fifth Republic of France, and injecting as the same time new dynamics and momentum, French President Macron has formed a new multilateral diplomacy. With an idea of consolidating and strengthening the multi-polar world and expanding the EU, Macron’s new multilateral diplomacy endeavors to highlight France’s national interests, international status and world influence, which is aimed at realizing its dream of a great power. It consists of opposing Trump’s unilateralism and resisting the Biden-style multilateralism, emphasizing European sovereignty and strategic autonomy, promoting a balance of power, enhancing multilateral cooperation on combating terrorism and taking an active part in global governance, which combines the features of both realism and pragmatism, and of both global multilateralism and minilateralism. It runs parallel with China’s multilateral diplomacy. However, it at the same time contains elements that take China as a rival. Both positive and negative features exist in Macron’s new multilateral diplomacy. France will take on the rotating presidency of the EU in the first half of 2022, and Macron’s new multilateral diplomacy is thus worthy of close attention.