Thursday, March 28, 2024 | Ramadan 17, 1445 H
broken clouds
weather
OMAN
23°C / 23°C
EDITOR IN CHIEF- ABDULLAH BIN SALIM AL SHUEILI

Macron urges European army to defend against Russia, US

1034760
1034760
minus
plus

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron called on Tuesday for a “real European army” as the continent marks a century since the divisions of World War I, to better defend itself against Russia and even the United States.


Macron, who has pushed for a joint European Union military force since his arrival in power, said Europe needed to reduce its dependence on American might, not least after US President Donald Trump announced he was pulling out of a Cold War-era nuclear treaty. “We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America,” Macron told Europe 1 in his first radio interview since becoming president in May 2017.


“When I see President Trump announcing that he’s quitting a major disarmament treaty which was formed after the 1980s Euromissile crisis that hit Europe, who is the main victim? Europe and its security,” he said.


The Euromissile crisis — a mini-arms race within the Cold War that saw the US roll ballistic missiles into Europe — was a major factor spurring the 1987 Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty.


“We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army,” Macron said in the interview, recorded on Monday night in Verdun, northeast France, as he tours the former Western Front during week-long World War I centenary commemorations.


Faced with “a Russia which is at our borders and has shown that it can be a threat”, Macron argued: “We need a Europe which defends itself better alone, without just depending on the United States.”


Macron has spearheaded the creation of a nine-country European force that would be capable of rapidly mounting a joint military operation, an evacuation from a war zone, or providing aid after a natural disaster.


The nine countries’ defence ministers will meet in Paris for the first time on Wednesday, to start thrashing out details of how the force will operate. — AFP


SHARE ARTICLE
arrow up
home icon