France will seek arms contracts with European countries that are now buying American weapons, President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with the French regional press.
“I asked (arms) manufacturers if we could approach European countries that are used to buying American products,” Macron said.
He stated that those buying Patriot systems should be offered the French-Italian SAMP/T, while those buying F-35 fighters should be offered the Rafale.
Macron said that increasing production would require reducing production costs and reorganising work and education.
As he noted, since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022, France has already made enormous progress in the area of defense. “In 2021, we produced ten Caeser gun-howitzers, and this year we will produce 82,” he recalled.
Macron said he “does not rule out” delivering more Mirage 2000 fighters to Kiev. In early March, French planes intercepted Russian missiles fired at Ukraine for the first time.
The French president also said that the decision on the deployment of a possible peacekeeping mission in Ukraine would be up to Ukraine. “Ukraine is a sovereign state. If it asks for the presence of allied troops on its territory, this is not something that Russia can accept or not,” he noted.
He stressed that the aim of such a mission would not be to send a huge number of soldiers to Ukraine, because “the largest European army is Ukraine” (it has about a million soldiers). According to the president, it would be about deploying several thousand soldiers in key points, “to conduct training and show our long-term support,” he announced. (PAP)
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