Macron's Final UN Speech Spurs 27-Nation Alliances Against Trump

3 articles · Updated · The Guardian · Sep 26

Macron used his final UN address before stepping down next spring to defend international law and reject a world where “might is right,” in a speech widely read as a direct rebuke to Trump.
Trump had earlier used his own UN speech to boast of US power and threaten Iran, including musing about “annihilat[ing] the Islamic Republic,” sharpening the contrast Macron sought to draw.
In the days that followed, leaders from Australia and Spain echoed Macron’s line, with a broader bloc of “middle powers” speaking up more openly against Trump than they had a year earlier.
A 27-leader initiative launched by Finland and Norway to create an international AI safety body became one concrete outlet for that push, directly challenging Trump’s dismissal of AI safety concerns as a “hoax.”
The speech also fed a wider shift toward values-based, overlapping coalitions — from EU-Canada talks on associate membership to new sanctions groupings over Israel — as middle powers test alternatives to a US-led order.