CNN)France’s 42-year-old president, Emmanuel Macron, who has faced many challenges governing his country, is now positioning himself to take over the mantle of global leadership long reserved to the older leaders of China, Russia or especially the United States. And right now, he has no real challengers.
“The vehicle of this leadership campaign is Macron’s proposal for a worldwide ceasefire — a truce everywhere from Afghanistan to Syria, Iraq and Yemen.And he says he’s a good part of the way there. There are five permanent members of the UN Security Council (France, China, Russia, Britain and the US) and four of the five are on board, according to Macron.Macron also says he hopes to secure the agreement of the final member, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, within hours. UN Secretary General António Guterres had already called for an “immediate, global ceasefire,” observing that “the fury of the virus illustrates the folly of war,” though with no real buy-in until Macron weighed in.”
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