Macron responds to Trump's idea of putting pressure on China: Let's focus on secondary sanctions

In response to the call of the US president Donald Trump to Europe to put more pressure on China, his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron called for consideration of secondary sanctions that would directly target Russia. The politician said this in a statement in an interview with the American TV channel CBS News.

Macron said that the European Union will have its own diplomacy with China, noting that "we are very attached to our independence, which is normal."

According to the French president, Europe has a strategy of risk mitigation, not distancing itself from China.

The journalist clarified whether this meant that the Trump administration was not putting pressure on the EU in this regard.

"My position is: let's focus on some secondary sanctions, if they make sense. I think we need to have a serious dialog to find out where and to what extent third countries are helping Russia and increase the pressure. So I think this approach is right, but it has to be targeted and directly linked to Russia," Macron said.

At the same time, he said that the Europeans, together with the US administration, will "work hard in all areas, product by product, to ensure that key countries do not allow Russia to sometimes have a third way and avoid sanctions or benefit from the current situation."

"This is what we call secondary sanctions, because you don't impose sanctions directly on Russia, but [impose them] against a third country that helps it, and this work has to be done, technically it has already begun. I fully support this work," the French president summarized.

• on September 13, 2025, the US leader published "a letter sent to all NATO countries and the world", in which he stated that he was ready to impose "serious sanctions" against Russia when all the countries of the Alliance start doing the same and stop buying Russian oil.
• In addition, the US president believes that NATO as a group should impose tariffs of 50-100% against China, which can be canceled only after the end of Russia's war against Ukraine.
• On September 15, U.S. Treasury secretary Bessent said that the U.S. administration would not impose additional duties on Chinese goods to stop Beijing's purchases of Russian oil unless European countries the country's own high tariffs on products.
• On September 18, Trump said that China could probably force Russia to end its war against Ukraine if European countries resorted to economic restrictions against Beijing.