Macron to wean Europe off US weapons, launches French

French President Emmanuel Macron wants to convince EU countries to stop buying US defense equipment and instead buy French and European ones, "Politico" reported, quoted by BTA.

In an interview with several French media outlets, including "Nice-Matienne" and "Parisienne", Macron, who has been calling for years for defense spending to be directed toward EU products, said he wants to convince other European countries that are currently "buying American" to switch to local options.

"My intention is to go and convince European countries that are used to buying American", he said in the interview. "Those who buy the Patriot should be offered a new generation of the Franco-Italian SAMP/T. Those who buy the F-35 should be offered the Rafale." This is the way to increase the pace of production," he said.

Macron's comments come at a time when European NATO members have become even more dependent on American weapons than ever, Politico reported.

This month, the Netherlands and Belgium confirmed that they would still buy American F-35 fighter jets, while Portugal is hesitant to replace its US-made F-16s with the more advanced F-35s due to the "position of the United States in the context of NATO."

Macron said he had asked French defense companies to cut red tape and costs to make themselves a more attractive option, Nice-Matène reported.

In the interview, the French president also explained what a possible deployment of European troops to help Ukraine might look like. The goal is to "deploy several thousand men from one country to key points to implement training programs" and "demonstrate our support in the long term," he said.