Paris wants G7 to ‘build bridges’ with BRICS – Macron

“Fragmentation” of the world “does not make sense,” the French president has stated

France wants the G7 to build closer cooperation with BRICS to counter growing global “fragmentation,” President Emmanuel Macron said at the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday.

In January, France assumed the rotating presidency of the G7.

Speaking about the agenda for the group, Macron said Paris wants to restore effective cooperation within the G7 while also developing ties with the wider world. One of the objectives is “to build bridges and … cooperation with the emerging countries, BRICS and the G20,” he said.

Founded in 2006, BRICS is an intergovernmental organization of nations that together account for more than a quarter of the global economy and nearly a half of the world’s population. It currently includes ten members: Brazil, China, Egypt, Ethiopia, India, Indonesia, Iran, Russia, South Africa, and the United Arab Emirates.

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“Fragmentation of this world would not make sense,” Macron said, adding that it was time for “major powers” to demonstrate they are still capable of producing shared assessments of the global economy and “committing to concrete actions.”

Earlier this month, Macron shared a similar sentiment in his annual address to French ambassadors ahead of his February visit to India, which is to assume BRICS presidency this year. “The G7 should not be an anti-China club or an anti-BRICS club,” he said at the time.

On Tuesday, however, he criticized Beijing for not opening its market to the level the EU does and for flooding Europe with goods instead of investments or technologies. He also called on the EU to “strengthen its trade defense instruments” in the context of “escalating trade tensions and Asian overcapacities.”