US walks out on France at UN over human rights criticism

US diplomats walked out as their French counterparts were speaking at the United Nations on Monday after America’s close European ally criticised the Trump administration’s human rights record.

The surprise move during a UN Security Council meeting on Ukraine followed US opposition to giving UN human rights chief Volker Turk another four-year term. The reappointment on Friday got overwhelming support, including from France.

The US walkout reflects not only the more strained relations between President Donald Trump and his French counterpart, Emmanuel Macron, but also wider tensions between the US and Europe. These include questions over Trump’s commitment to Nato, possible changes to US troop deployments in Europe, and Trump’s desire to control Greenland, which belongs to Nato member Denmark.

Trump has complained that Europeans, who were not consulted, did not help the US during the Iran war. Amid the tensions, Macron has taken a lead in trying to build up Europe’s military and ensure a nuclear umbrella as one of the continent’s two nuclear powers, along with Britain.

After Monday’s brief walkout, deputy US ambassador Dan Negrea accused France of feigning “moral outrage” and pretending to lecture the world about every topic, including human rights.

The United States has stood by France in every conflict where its “freedom has been imperilled” and tolerated its grandstanding “out of a sense of camaraderie and mutual respect,” he said, but no more.