Macron urges world leaders to 'build hope, not fear

French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday urged global leaders to build hopes rather than "playing our fears against each other."

Speaking at the Arc de Triomphe during the armistice centenary celebrations, marking the end of the First World War, Macron said that "the traces of that war have not faded from French soil," or from "our memories around the world," CNN reported.

He also touched upon universal values that underlined the importance of countries to work together and eliminate differences.

"On 11 November 1918, at 11 o'clock in the morning, 100 years ago, day to day, hour for hour, in Paris, as in all of France, the bugles sounded and the bells rang. It was the end of four long and terrible years of deadly fighting," Macron was quoted by Sputnik as saying.

The French President further said that France's vision as a generous nation that is a "bearer of universal values" is the "very opposite of nationalism", which, he claimed, only looks after itself. "Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism," he added.

Apart from Macron, French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe and other world leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, Russian President Vladimir Putin, and US President Donald Trump paid their respects at the 'Tomb of the Unknown Soldier' during the ceremony.

The First World War had begun in 1914 and went on for four years. Known as the "war to end all wars', an estimated eight million people died during the global catastrophe. The war finally ended on November 11, 1918, after an armistice agreement was signed between Germany and the Allies.