BANGKOK - French President Emmanuel Macron urged an end to “confrontation” Friday as he relaunched his strategy for the Asia-Pacific region after a bitter row over a canceled submarine contract with Australia. In a speech on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) summit, Macron cast France as a balancing power in a region long dominated by the superpower tussle between China and the United States. The APEC summit comes days after a high-stakes meeting between US President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping took some heat out of their escalating rivalry. Tensions between Washington and Beijing have risen sharply in recent years over the future of self-governing Taiwan, human rights, trade and China’s increasing assertiveness. “We don’t believe in hegemony, we don’t believe in confrontation, we believe in stability,” Macron said. Regional powers including Paris -- which has overseas territories in the Indian and Pacific oceans, including Reunion, New Caledonia and French Polynesia -- should play a role, he said. “We are in the jungle and we have two big elephants, trying to become more and more nervous,” Macron said in his speech, which he gave in English. “If they become very nervous and start war it will be a big problem for the rest of the jungle.