"Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security," French President Emmanuel Macron said Monday. "It is up to us today to take our responsibilities and guarantee our own security, and thus have European sovereignty."
Macron was speaking to a gathering of French overseas ambassadors, outlining his diplomatic agenda. "I want us to launch an exhaustive review of our security with all Europe's partners, which includes Russia," he said, arguing that at present France is "paying the price of several decades of a weakened Europe." Now, he added, "France wants a Europe which protects, even as extremism has grown stronger and nationalism has awoken." Macron will travel to Denmark and Finland to promote this message.
The French president's comments echo those of German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas, who argued in an op-ed last week that Europe must "take an equal share of the responsibility" for its own defense and "form a counterweight" to Washington.