AMSTERDAM - French President Emmanuel Macron began a state visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday seeking to calm a furore over his controversial remarks on Europe and China.
Macron will give a speech on European sovereignty that will be closely watched after he said in an interview that Europe must not be a "follower" of either Washington or Beijing on Taiwan.
Making the first state visit by a French president to the Netherlands for 23 years, Macron and his wife Brigitte were greeted by Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima on their arrival in Amsterdam.
The French leader stood to attention alongside the Dutch royals outside the Royal Palace as a band played the Marseillaise, the French national anthem. A few people cheered as Macron's car arrived, an AFP journalist said.
But amid the pomp and ceremony, all eyes are on Macron's comments on China, which he visited last week.
The Elysee Palace insisted Tuesday that the president had never called for Europe to keep an "equidistance" from the United States and China.
"The United States are our allies, we share common values," the French presidency said.
Macron is due to make a speech in English on "European sovereignty" in security and economic matters on Tuesday afternoon at the Dutch Nexus institute in The Hague.
He will use the address to present "a doctrine of economic security" against China and the United States, amid European unease over US climate subsidies.
The speech comes after Macron said in an interview with media including French business daily Les Echos and Politico that "we don't want to depend on others on critical issues", citing energy, artificial intelligence and social networks.
Macron's comments in the same interview on Taiwan, that Europe risks entanglement in "crises that aren't ours" and should "depend less on the Americans" in matters of defence, have raised questions, like his past remarks on Ukraine.
"The worst thing would be to think that we Europeans must be followers and adapt ourselves to the American rhythm and a Chinese overreaction," Macron said after his three-day state visit to Beijing.
His comments were criticised on both sides of the Atlantic. alérie Leroux