Macron visits Netherlands amid row over China comments

French President Emmanuel Macron began a state visit to the Netherlands on Tuesday seeking to calm a furor 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.

- 'Brain death' -

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 defense, 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 criticized on both sides of the Atlantic.

U.S. Senator Marco Rubio said on Twitter that "we need to find out if Emmanuel Macron speaks for Europe."

"A brain death has occurred somewhere, no doubt," said the director of the Polish Institute of International Relations (PISM), Slawomir Debski, referring to the words used by the French president to describe NATO in 2019.

But the White House said Monday it was "confident" in the relationship with France despite Macron's comments.

During the two-day Dutch state visit, Macron will have a state dinner with the king and queen, see the hot-ticket Johannes Vermeer exhibition at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam, and meet Prime Minister Mark Rutte on a canal boat.

The visit is meant to highlight a new dynamic between Paris and The Hague after the turning point of Brexit.

In the wake of the speech, Paris and The Hague will sign a "pact for innovation" on Wednesday focusing on cooperation in semiconductors, quantum physics and energy.

France and the Netherlands will also work to finalize a defense pact by 2024.

The French president's domestic political troubles also threaten to intrude on the visit, with a new day of strikes against his pension reform plans planned for Thursday.