U.S. President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron shake hands ahead of a working lunch | Peter Dejong/AFP via Getty Images France cheers Macron going mano a mano with Trump French president takes firm grip on relations with US counterpart.

"It's called marking your territory."

That's how French daily Le Monde described French President Emmanuel Macron's first international summit in Brussels since his election victory earlier this month. Many in France and abroad noted — and cheered — Macron's apparent combativeness in dealing with U.S. President Donald Trump at the gathering on Thursday.

Macron tweeted a video of himself greeting leaders attending the NATO summit. The video showed Macron walking towards Trump, but then veering towards German Chancellor Angela Merkel at the last second, in what some saw as a snub. Others pointed out he was merely doing the polite thing by greeting the woman in the crowd first — followed by his two hosts, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg and Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel.

When Macron did meet Trump, the two leaders seemed to have been locked in a tight handshake in which each appeared to yank the other's arm towards himself.

À Bruxelles, unis avec nos alliés de @NATO. pic.twitter.com/7nyaoI8hki — Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 25, 2017

In a one-on-one meeting later, Macron and Trump staged another handshake, which many described as "white-knuckled."

Poignée de mains Trump-Macron si intense que les mains sont devenues "blanches" et les mâchoires "serrées" (pool report) pic.twitter.com/dzCRwcZEZT — AFP USA (@AFPusa) May 25, 2017

Macron 1

Trump 0 https://t.co/6Syr3kit3g — George Takei (@GeorgeTakei) May 25, 2017

Le Parisien packaged the whole meeting in a video with some very epic music.

Macron also didn't seem to take very kindly Trump's admonishments to NATO allies on not meeting defense spending targets.

France's Macron and Luxemburg's Bettel react to Trump's lecture on NATO pic.twitter.com/AXdEFmJ04Y — Mathieu von Rohr (@mathieuvonrohr) May 25, 2017

Macron, Trump and the other leaders now move on to Sicily for the G7 summit on Friday and Saturday.