The French president also said he expected tensions with the U.S. to outlast President Donald Trump.
“This is a historical trend,” he said. “We can engage with the U.S. on some issues, and [that] still makes a lot of sense because of the common values and historical bonds, but I really believe that this U.S. approach will last,” he added.
He said the main difference between the first and second Trump terms was that many European countries thought the first term was an aberration that would end, not requiring fundamental changes.
“Now, a lot of colleagues are more lucid, because after so many years, we say, okay, we have to react. We have to act as Europeans, to be more united, to defend ourselves our own interests. And for me, this is the right direction.”
Macron flew to Athens after an informal European Council meeting in Cyprus because Greece and France are set to sign the renewal of a bilateral security pact on Saturday.
The signing seeks to update a pact reached in 2021 between Macron and Mitsotakis, which included a mutual defense clause and commitments from Greece to purchase at least €3 billion-worth of French warships.
The renewal will extend it for a further five years, with an automatic renewal thereafter and is also expected to include new areas of cooperation, such as foreign policy, civil protection and the economy.
give_me_your_body on April 25th, 2026 at 05:34 UTC »
Only a united Rome could resist the three of them /s
R3tr0N3wB on April 25th, 2026 at 03:39 UTC »
They're concerned with us becoming a coalition; If Europe, the United Kingdom, and Canada acted as one bloc, they’d become a much stronger economic player and that means more competition and would shift the balance.
Althusser_Was_Right on April 25th, 2026 at 01:09 UTC »
New Red Alert expansion is a bit too real for me.