“Do we want to live under … the law of the jungle or do we want to live in a civilised international society?” Emmanuel Macron put the question to the UN General Assembly on Tuesday, 22 September 2026, in what was his last address to the body before he leaves office next spring.
He spoke a few hours after Donald Trump, who rejected global AI regulation in his own speech and, according to the Guardian, mused about whether to “annihilate the Islamic Republic” of Iran. Macron offered the opposite case. He described a “new era of barbaric acts” and told delegates: “My message is to stand firm.” The Guardian’s Steve Bloomfield read much of it as aimed at Trump, though Macron also criticised Russia and Israel directly.
Ukraine, Gaza and the veto
Macron had raised Ukraine with Trump the day before. At the podium he proposed a moratorium on Russian and Ukrainian strikes against civilian and energy infrastructure, and a second one on attacks on commercial shipping in the Black Sea, which he said would help free up grain exports.
On Gaza his tone sharpened. “What is our credibility worth if we remain inactive on Gaza?” he asked, adding that claims of peace had not brought humanitarian deliveries. He then turned to the West Bank, saying violations were taking place daily and that “Hamas has never struck in the West Bank.” Benjamin Netanyahu’s office answered fast. It called the statement grotesquely absurd and pointed to the fatal shooting of Israeli-French citizen Netanel Shukrun there on Sunday.
Macron also backed a Franco-Mexican initiative to restrict use of the Security Council veto in cases of mass atrocities. He said 128 member states support it. France, he added, wants a bigger peace and security role for the African Union and regional organisations.
Double standards
The passage the Guardian singled out was a rare admission about the West. Macron spoke of its “permanent temptation to espouse double standards” and asked how often people had heard that sovereignty counts in Europe but matters less in the Middle East and Africa. “No, that is unacceptable,” he said. “A life is a life.”
AI, climate and children
On artificial intelligence, Macron proposed an open-source advanced model so that countries depend less on China or the United States. “We should not depend on somebody else,” he said. He urged delegates to “defend science” on climate and biodiversity. And he said societies had waited too long to protect children from social media, citing weaker learning, mental health problems and obesity among the young. The issue returns at the Paris Peace Forum on 10 and 11 November.
Bloomfield, writing in the Guardian, noted that Macron’s big speeches have rarely produced much change, and that the solutions in New York were slight. But the speeches that followed, from leaders of so-called middle powers, echoed his line. Australia’s Anthony Albanese said the UN mission could not be left to the great powers alone. Spain’s Pedro Sánchez called on countries to resist those who want to drag the world back to a dark past.
Sources
- In his final UN speech, Macron may have given other leaders a valuable parting gift: the guts to stand up to Trump | Steve Bloomfield | The Guardian
- Macron urges world to resist ‘law of the jungle’ in final UN address
