'That’s how you get respect’: Macron speaks up about handshake with Trump

French President Emmanuel Macron attends a meeting at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, May 23, 2017. Reuters/Philippe Wojazer

A clip of US President Donald Trump and France's new President Emmanuel Macron’s handshake ahead of the NATO summit on Thursday has gone viral. The latter reacted to his first handshake with Trump, saying it was not innocent.

“My handshake with him, it wasn’t innocent,” Macron told the French weekly Journal du Dimanche on Sunday. He added that one must show that he won’t make small concessions without over-publicising things.

In the viral clip, the French leader’s mouth seemed to clench while his eyes were firmly fixed at Trump’s stare. Trump was seen pulling away at a point, while it appeared Macron refused to release his counterpart’s hand.

Macron said the moment was not the be-all-and-end-all, but a moment of truth. The 39-year-old has become France's youngest president three weeks ago. The POTUS congratulated him on his recent election victory. Macron gave further comments to The Associated Press, saying “that is how you get respect.” The two leaders were addressing journalists and photographers when they shook hands on Thursday.

They met for lunch before a gathering of European and NATO leaders in Brussels. Trump and Macron confronted each other again later on Thursday on a blue welcome carpet outside the NATO headquarters.

Macron said he was not bothered that Trump and the Turkish and Russian leaders Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin “think in terms of power ratios.” But he clarified he does not believe in "the diplomacy of public invective but in bilateral dialogue.”

The wives of both Trump and Macron posed side-by-side at the Magritte Museum. Melania sported a nude leather skirt suit and snakeskin heels. France's first lady Brigitte Trogneux, on the other hand, wore a black Louis Vuitton dress and Mary-Janes.

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Meanwhile, photographs of Macron with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau draw attention on the internet and were described as a “liberal fantasy dream sequence.” They were having a stroll through walkways filled with flowers and were talking against the backdrop of a blue Mediterranean sea. "Apparently Justin Trudeau and Emmanuel Macron flew to Sicily for their wedding photoshoot," Twitter user @sherlockify wrote.

In another captured moment, Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull had to overreach to shake Trump’s hand during the two leaders’ first face-to-face meeting following reports of a testy phone call over a refugee deal between Australia and the United States. The said meeting was postponed for three hours.

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