Emmanuel Macron News

The agenda for French President Emmanuel Macron’s India visit this week is expansive, with everything from the shape of global AI rules to the Russia-Ukraine war up for talks. What takes the spotlight, though, is the reported deal for 114 Rafale fighter jets (plus munitions) that India wants to buy from France for $40 billion.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories.ROME—As President Trump’s rift with Europe widens, he is casting even his political friends into the chasm.Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has spent the past year trying to act as a bridge while Trump tussled with other European leaders over tariffs, Ukraine and Greenland.Trump, who previously called Meloni a “great leader,” now says he is shocked by her refusal to send forces to help open the Strait of Hormuz amid the U.S.-Iran war. “I thought she had courage, but I was wrong,” he told the Italian newspaper Corriere della Sera on Tuesday.The abrupt breakdown of their political friendship shows how the middle ground is disappearing between a White House that is demanding loyalty from its allies and a Europe where voters and governments increasingly view the U.S.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. From India’s uneven export growth despite a sharp rise in shipments to several countries to the country hosting the first artificial intelligence (AI) summit, new Consumer Price Index (CPI) basket resetting the inflation measurement, merchants reporting higher sales due to the digital payment system, and a gauge of national pride sentiment—here’s a compilation of this week’s news in numbers. India’s exports rose 0.6% year-on-year to $36.6 billion in January 2026, the latest trade figures released on Monday showed.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. NEW DELHI : India has put forward a framework for how the country's artificial intelligence startups and the world’s frontier labs should build and deploy inclusive AI.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When French President Emmanuel Macron strode to the stage in Davos wearing a pair of reflective aviator sunglasses, many thought he was sending a message: It was time for someone in Europe to stand up to President Trump. Was Macron evoking Tom Cruise’s cocky fighter pilot Maverick in “Top Gun," signaling that he wouldn’t back down against Trump’s demands for control of Greenland? Others thought he might be throwing shade by wearing aviator-style sunglasses favored by former President Biden, the object of Trump’s constant derision.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. IT WAS hardly the first time since Donald Trump’s inauguration last year that Europeans have been outraged by America. But the anger at the weekend, after America’s president threatened to impose a 10% tariff rate on eight European countries that had dared to send a few troops to Greenland, felt more determined than before.

China’s new economic model is putting the future of Asia’s Gen-Z at risk. The continent is home to some of the world’s most trade-oriented economies that rode globalization to lift the lives and livelihoods of hundreds of millions. But it’s now being hit by a double whammy: an export base that has come under pressure from a flood of cheap goods from China, unquestionably the region’s dominant power, and US President Donald Trump’s trade war.It is frustrating a generation already struggling with stagnant wages and soaring living costs.

China’s role as the world’s big factory isn’t weakening in the face of the US’s tariff-policy pushback. Its trade surplus is set for a record high in 2025, with exports exceeding imports by nearly $1.1 trillion in the first 11 months of the year, according to official data released on Monday, topping the trillion-dollar mark for the first time. Sure, its exports to the US slumped about 29% from a year earlier in November, but this was more than offset by export expansion to other markets.

A mobility agreement allowing Indian blue-collar workers, such as those in construction, to seek employment in Russia.A naval training pact under which Russia will train Indian sailors for operations along the Arctic route. This is particularly significant, as the melting of Arctic ice opens up new shipping lanes.

Zelensky on Saturday hailed «tangible progress» after meeting British and French military chiefs in Kyiv to discuss strengthening the Ukrainian army and ways to support the war-torn country after any end of hostilities with Russia. British Chief of the Defence Staff Tony Radakin and French counterpart Thierry Burkhard on Friday held talks with Zelensky, Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky and Defence Minister Rustem Umerov. Zelensky wrote on social media on Saturday: «There is tangible progress and the first details on how the security contingent of partners can be deployed,» without giving details. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer are spearheading European efforts to send a «reassurance force» to Ukraine after any end to the war sparked by Russia's invasion in 2022. Zelensky thanked «the UK and France for their leadership», saying «it is this kind of joint work, when everyone is focused on a strong result, that helps to bring a reliable and lasting peace to Ukraine.»

News reports indicate that Putin is struggling with serious health issues such as cancer and Parkinson's, as evidenced by shaking limbs and puffy features. The Kremlin persists in denying everything.

Paris. Cafes are bustling, the economy is showing signs of improvement and a shiny (stair-free) metro expansion is making the 15-minute city even more accessible. Yet there’s also the faintly audible sound of wealth on the move: Two locals inform me of plans to leave, one to Dubai and the other to Switzerland. In a similar vein to London’s fleeing non-doms and Brexit banking exiles, Paris is going through its own dose of ras-le-bol fiscal — the moment when the proverbial tax straw breaks the camel’s back — in President Emmanuel Macron’s twilight years. Taxes are going up on big business and the wealthy; Marine Le Pen is the presidential contender to beat in 2027; parliament is gridlocked and still fighting over pension reforms that tore the country apart in 2023. After an extraordinary run for Paris as the euro area’s investment-banking hub of choice, with the number of French financiers on seven-figure salaries almost doubling in four years, hiring plans are being put on ice.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. PARIS—Two weeks after Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron descended 20 stories beneath Paris to send a message to Moscow. He entered France’s nuclear bunker deep under his regal presidential palace to lead an exercise dubbed Poker.

Rafale fighters armed with hypersonic nuclear missiles by the middle of the next decade to counter what it believes is the Russian threat from the east. Just days after proposing a nuclear umbrella to Europe in the event of US President Donald Trump withdrawing from the NATO military alliance, French President Emmanuel Macron on March 18 announced that an air base near the German border will have Rafale F5 combat jets armed with Air-Sol Nucleaire de 4eme Generation (ASN4G) hypersonic nuclear missiles. «By 2035, Luxeuil-Saint-Sauveur Air Base will be the first base to host the latest version of the Rafale fighter jet with a hypersonic nuclear missile, symbolising the renewal and modernisation of our nuclear deterrent forces that has begun.

Ukraine has signalled support for a U.S.-proposed pause in attacks on Russian energy infrastructure. The agreement, backed by Washington and Moscow, follows a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, however, made it clear that Kyiv needed more details before making a final decision. «After we get the details from the U.S. president, from the U.S. side, we will give our answer,» Zelensky said in an online briefing. He added that Ukraine would honour the agreement as long as Moscow also adhered to it. «Our side will maintain it,» he stated, but stressed that the U.S. should act as «guarantors of control over the implementation.»

Emmanuel Macron on Friday (local time) called on Russia to accept the US-brokered proposal for an interim 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, emphasizing that «atrocities must stop.» Macron criticized Russia for its «delaying statements» on the proposed deal following his discussion with Ukrainian President Volodymr Zelenskyy and UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer. «I spoke today with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and then with Prime Minister Kier Starmer following the progress made during the meeting between the United States and Ukraine in Jeddah on Tuesday. Russia must now accept the U.S.-Ukrainian proposal for a 30-day ceasefire. The Russian aggression in Ukraine must end. The atrocities must stop. So must the delaying statements,» Macron wrote in a post on X. Macron assured France's unwavering support to Ukraine to achieve peace and informed that all partners will hold a video conference today to discuss the issue.

European leaders are confronting their worst-case scenario: maybe they really are going to be dealing with a bellicose Russia alone.

If the tariffs are confirmed, «Europeans will respond and therefore there will be reciprocal tariffs. Because we must protect ourselves, defend ourselves,» Macron said in Porto during a state visit to Portugal. «We must not be weak in the face of these measures,» he said alongside Portuguese Prime Minister Luis Montenegro.

Donald Trump branded Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator. On Friday he will host the Ukrainian president at the White House and sign a deal granting Washington access to Ukraine's rare minerals. The extraordinary turnaround caps a week of frantic international diplomacy centered on Washington, as Kyiv seeks to shore up support despite Trump's recent pivot towards Russia. Trump upended years of US policy on Ukraine two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war — without Kyiv.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. The rupture of the post-1945 order is gaining pace. In extraordinary scenes at the UN this week, America sided with Russia and North Korea against Ukraine and Europe.

Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. When French President Emmanuel Macron visited Washington this week, President Trump invited him earlier than scheduled into the White House, where the two men talked alone for over an hour. Macron pressed Trump to provide a U.S.