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Old 11-06-2018, 01:16 PM
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Cool Macron wants 'Euro army' to combat China, Russia and US

Macron wants 'Euro army' to combat China, Russia and US
By: Henry Samuel - 7 November 2018 — 8:00 am
RE: https://www.smh.com.au/world/europe/...07-p50ef7.html

Paris: Emmanuel Macron, the French president, has called for a "real European army" to defend the continent against Russia, China and even the US.

Mr Macron, who has pushed for a joint EU military force since his election last year, issued the call in northern France in the run-up to the centenary of the end of the First World War.

"We will not protect the Europeans unless we decide to have a true European army," Mr Macron said in the interview at Verdun, the scene of France's most bloody battle.

His call came as he was due to welcome Donald Trump, the US president, and other world leaders, including Theresa May and Russia's Vladimir Putin, to France to commemorate Armistice centenary this weekend.

Mr Macron said the continent could no longer rely on protection from America, citing the recent decision of Mr Trump to withdraw from a Cold War-era nuclear treaty, and he even suggested its old ally posed a potential threat.

"We have to protect ourselves with respect to China, Russia and even the United States of America," Mr Macron told broadcaster Europe 1 in his first radio interview since taking power.

"When I see President Trump announcing that he's quitting a major disarmament treaty which was formed after the 1980s euro-missile crisis that hit Europe, who is the main victim? Europe and its security," he said.

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

Mr Trump had previously said that Europe could not bank on America's protection if it failed to meet its annual defence spending commitment to Nato, prompting Mr Macron to declare last month: "Europe can no longer rely solely on the US for its security."

While he enjoys good working relations with Mr Trump, Mr Macron has called the US president's America First isolationism "worrying". Last month, he laid into Mr Trump's policies on Iran, Arab-Israeli peace, climate change and migration in a speech to the UN General Assembly in New York.

He said: "Nationalism always leads to defeat. If courage is lacking in the defence of fundamental principles, international order becomes fragile and this can lead, as we have already seen twice, to global war."

The EU launched a multi-billion-euro defence fund last year to develop Europe's military capacities. France has also led the creation of a military crisis force of nine countries, including Britain, operating outside the framework of the EU after Brexit. The European Intervention Initiative (EII) holds its first meeting today in Paris. But Britain has always argued against the idea of a European army as a competitor to Nato.

Defence analysts expressed scepticism yesterday over the concept of a European army. Bruno Alomar, professor at the School of War in Paris, said the idea of creating a "common strategic culture" was interesting.

"But there exists a fantastic gap between European defence dreams of Emmanuel Macron and the reality of very powerful disagreements between European partners on defence issues," he told AFP.
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O Almighty Lord God, who neither slumberest nor sleepest; Protect and assist, we beseech thee, all those who at home or abroad, by land, by sea, or in the air, are serving this country, that they, being armed with thy defence, may be preserved evermore in all perils; and being filled with wisdom and girded with strength, may do their duty to thy honour and glory; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

"IN GOD WE TRUST"
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