French President Emmanuel Macron has used an Armistice Day speech to urge fellow leaders to reject nationalism, in an apparent dig at US President Donald Trump’s unashamed American First strategy.

Mr Trump, who was present when Mr Macron made the comments at a gathering of 72 world leaders in Paris, did not react as the French president said “nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism.’’

“By saying ‘our interests first and never mind the others’ you stamp out the most precious thing a nation can have … its moral values,” he said.

Mr Trump did not respond to the comments when he made an appearance at an American war cemetery outside Paris several hours later, avoiding politics altogether in his speech as he praised American and French “patriots’’ and sacrifice during World War 1.

The apparent sniping from Mr Macron came after the two leaders had a spat over Mr Macron’s call for the establishment of a European army to defend the continent from Russian aggression, which prompted a tweet from Mr Trump saying it was “very insulting’’ and pointing out, correctly, that the US propped up NATO.

The pair had apparently made up prior to yesterday’s appearance, but there was none of the obvious bonhomie that had been on display back in July when Mr Trump was hosted by Mr Macron at Bastille Day celebrations.

Mr Trump did not join Mr Macron’s Paris Peace Forum after the Armistice event, although other world leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan did.

The US President did avoid controversy by not holding a sideline meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, who he last saw in Helsinki in July, where he was widely criticised for being too agreeable towards Mr Putin on everything from meddling in elections to the poisoning of a Russian double-agent spy in the UK.

Russian media reported organisers had also moved place settings at a lunch yesterday so the two men were not sitting together, although they did shake hands and Mr Putin gave Mr Trump a thumbs-up when they met at the Arc de Triomphe.

The pair will formally meet at the G20 summit in Argentina later this month.

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison did not attend the Paris event while UK Prime Minister Theresa May also stayed away, attending events in London. Chinese President Xi Jingping was also absent.