DON’T NEED US ARMS: MACRON AT WW1 EVENT
100 YEARS ON French president slams nationalism as world marks end of WW1
PARIS: Europe should not spend higher defence budgets on US-made weapons, French President Emmanuel Macron has said in an interview. The stinging remark came just a day after a defence row with US President Donald Trump.
One of dozens of world leaders attending World War I commemorations in France this weekend, Trump had tweeted after landing in Paris that Macron’s call for a non-NATO “real European army” was “very insulting”.
In an interview recorded on Saturday with CNN after talks with Trump, Macron said the two leaders had spoken about what his office has portrayed as a misunderstanding.
“We had a regular discussion this morning and he confirmed in front of the press that he was okay,” Macron told CNN.
Both leaders agree there should be “better burden-sharing within NATO”, meaning Europe should be less reliant on US-spending for its defence, Macron said.
But Macron told CNN: “To be very direct with you, what I don’t want to see is European countries increasing the budget in defence in order to buy American and other arms or materials coming from your industry.”
He stressed the need for Europe to take charge of its defence. “Whereas after World War 2 we needed the US to be present for our security, now the momentum for Europe is to build its own security and its own sovereignty,” he said.
He refrained from commenting on Trump’s tweet, saying, “I always prefer having direct discussions or answering questions than making my diplomacy through tweets.”
In Paris on Sunday, Macron said, “Patriotism is the exact opposite of nationalism. Nationalism is a betrayal of patriotism. In saying ‘our interests first and who cares about the others’, we erase what a nation has that’s most precious, what makes it live.”
In a radio interview earlier this week, Macron had named the US alongside China and Russia as sources of risk.
World leaders gathered in Paris on Sunday and led commemorations to mark 100 years since the end of World War 1 at a time of growing nationalism and diplomatic tensions.
Around 70 leaders, including US and Russian Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin marked the centenary of the 1918 Armistice in the French capital.
MERKEL DENOUNCES MILITARY ARROGANCE
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has made an impassioned plea for world peace and cooperation 100 years after Germany’s defeat in World War 1, warning against “blinkered nationalism”.
Speaking at a peace forum in Paris, Merkel denounced the “military arrogance” that led to the “senseless bloodshed” of two world wars.
In a veiled dig at Trump’s America-first policies and scepticism towards multilateral cooperation, Merkel warned that “lack of communication and unwillingness to compromise” can have deadly consequences.
TRUMP AND PUTIN SKIP WORLD LEADERS’ WALK
United in the rain, world leaders walked slowly up the ChampsElysees in Paris to mark a century since the end of World War 1 - but there were two notable absences, Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Both the US and Russian presidents arrived separately for the solemn ceremony at the Arc de Triomphe, skipping the bus ride and symbolic walk with other leaders.
White House press secretary Sarah Sanders said Trump, who wore a cornflower - France’s war remembrance flower - in his lapel, had arrived separately “due to security protocols”.