FRENCH President Emmanuel Macron has used a ceremony commemorating Australia’s wartime co-operation with France to highlight a global world-view as a counter to nationalism.

A week after criticising Donald Trump’s “America first” policies on a trip to Washington, and hours after a May Day gathering of European anti-immigration populist leaders in his home country, Macron thanked Australia for sending “a huge part of its population” to fight in France in both World Wars.

Speaking alongside prime minister Malcolm Turnbull at a wreath-laying ceremony at a Sydney war memorial, Macron said remembering Australian soldier’s sacrifice in France was “about understanding the foundations on which a nation is built”.

“That is a powerful message at a time when nationalism is looming, entrenched behind its borders and its hostility to the rest of the world. No great nation has ever been built by turning its back on the world.”

Macron’s impassioned speech came after a rally in Nice on Tuesday headed by French far-right leader Marine Le Pen, who joined other anti-immigration counterparts from around Europe in a gathering aimed at energising their campaigns for next year’s European Parliament elections.

Austrian and Czech populist leaders appeared as part of a joint effort to trumpet the gains made by Europe’s far-right parties, and to rail against the EU.