Emmanuel Macron has declared victory over Donald Trump, saying that his ability to defeat the US president in the handshake challenge was a “moment of truth” which showed that the French leader was no pushover.

The 39-year-old gripped his much older counterpart’s hand so firmly when they met for the first time ahead of a NATO summit in Brussels this week that their knuckles turned white and their jaws seemed to clench.

The pair looked each other fixedly in the eyes, and for a moment it looked like neither man wanted to be the first to end the manly clench.

But in the end it was Mr Trump who appeared to relent and loosen his fingers.

Mr Macron, who was elected earlier this month, said that his approach to the meeting had been about getting respect.

"Donald Trump, the Turkish president or the Russian president see things in terms of power relationships, which doesn't bother me," the centrist leader told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper.