French president praises multilateralism of Nato and EU while offering gratitude to US

France’s president, Emmanuel Macron, has appealed directly to Donald Trump to fulfil the “promise of Normandy” by embracing pillars of the postwar peace such as the European Union and Nato as the two leaders marked the D-day landings 75 years ago.

In a speech that trod a fine diplomatic line, Macron offered both sincere expressions of gratitude for the valour of US troops in the second world war and vehement calls for the White House to re-engage with the principles of multilateralism.

Speaking in front of 15,000 people gathered at the American cemetery and memorial in Colleville-sur-Mer, the resting place for 9,387 US troops killed in the Normandy campaign, Macron repeatedly name-checked Trump, even at times turning to face the US president who was sitting behind him.

“Dear Donald Trump, the United States is never greater than when it is fighting for the freedom of others,” Macron said from a stage erected by a wall of the missing. “The United States of America is never greater than when it shows its loyalty. Loyalty to the universal values that the founding fathers defended, when nearly two and a half centuries ago France came to support its independence. What we owe you is to show ourselves worthy of the heritage of peace that you have left us.

“Being worthy of the promise of Normandy means never forgetting that free people, when they join forces, can surmount any adversity,” Macron went on. “We shall never cease to perpetuate the alliance of free peoples. That is what the victorious sides did, when they created the United Nations, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization. That is what a few years later the leaders of Europe did in bringing about the European Union. The lessons of Colleville-sur-Mer are clear: liberty and democracy are inseparable.”