Macron Calls for Robust European Defence

French president Emmanuel Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs stronger defence

French president Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a “credible” defence strategy less dependent on the US, reports Agence France-Presse.

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

In his almost two-hour speech, Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both the US and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said. “It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

Discours sur l’Europe. https://t.co/WAUhV5ZP5B

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) April 25, 2024

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned, saying the continent was in a situation of “encirclement” from other regional powers.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

According to AFP, Macron urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Moscow for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the US.