{"id":12928,"date":"2018-08-27T18:24:19","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T18:24:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12928"},"modified":"2018-08-27T18:24:19","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T18:24:19","slug":"french-president-macron-europe-cannot-depend-on-us-for-security","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/?p=12928","title":{"rendered":"French President Macron: Europe cannot depend on US for security"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

The European Union<\/a> must stop depending on the United States<\/a> for security and must now rely on its own military forces for protection, France’s President\u00a0<\/span>Emmanuel Macron<\/a>\u00a0said.<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

In a speech to French ambassadors on Monday, Macron said he would put forward new proposals to the EU to boost security and that all European nations, including Russia<\/a>, should be involved in discussions on defence cooperation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Europe cannot rely on the United States only for its security,” he said. “It is up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our security.”<\/p>\n

Since his election in May 2017<\/a>, the 40-year-old leader has campaigned for a more integrated EU with a common defence budget and security doctrine.<\/p>\n

During the speech, Macron said cooperation with Russia should occur on the condition that progress is made with Moscow on the fighting in eastern\u00a0Ukraine<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Paris is pushing for full implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace agreement that was sponsored by France and Germany to settle the conflict in Ukraine<\/a>, which has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014.<\/p>\n

In November, EU countries launched an unprecedented programme of joint military investment aimed at confronting EU security challenges. Twenty-three of the 28 member states signed up to the plan.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

‘Turning its back’<\/span><\/h2>\n

Macron called on Europe to be “a trade and economic power” that defends its strategic interests and financial independence with tools that can fend off US extraterritorial sanctions.<\/p>\n

“Multilateralism is going through a major crisis which collides with all our diplomatic activity, above all because of US policy,” he said.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/p>\n

Macron also criticised US President Donald Trump’s “aggressive” isolationism.<\/p>\n

“The partner with whom Europe built the post-World War order appears to be turning its back on this shared history,” the French president said.<\/p>\n

‘In our neighbourhood’<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Meanwhile, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday that European nations must fill the gaps left by the withdrawal of the US from international organisations and key regions of the world.<\/p>\n

Heiko Maas told German diplomats in Berlin that Europe<\/a> should increase its political and financial weight at the United Nations and the World Trade Organization – both of which have come under pressure from Washington since Trump took office last year.<\/p>\n

He also urged Europe to step up its activities in the Middle East, Africa and western Balkans, warning that “the cost of war, poverty and displacement in our neighbourhood … is borne by us Europeans”.<\/p>\n

Maas said while Europe should seek to “rebalance” its relationship with Washington, “the goal is never ‘Europe first'”.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\n SOURCE: Al Jazeera and news agencies<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The European Union must stop depending on the United States for security and must now rely on its own military forces for protection, France’s President\u00a0Emmanuel Macron\u00a0said.\u00a0 In a speech to French ambassadors on Monday, Macron said he would put forward new proposals to the EU to boost security and that all European nations, including Russia,…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":12929,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12928","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-middle_east_news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12928","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=12928"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12928\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/12929"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=12928"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=12928"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/qatar-news.org\/qatarnewsEn\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=12928"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}