Russia slams Macron's nuclear umbrella idea
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Russia has sharply criticized French President Emmanuel Macron's remarks that he is open to using France's nuclear deterrent to protect its European allies.
The French leader proposed the nuclear umbrella during a televised speech on Wednesday. He also mentioned the idea of deploying European peacekeeping forces to Ukraine after a ceasefire is reached.
The Russian Foreign Ministry pushed back in a statement on Thursday, saying Macron's comments are a "threat" to the country. It said Paris has ambitions to become the "nuclear patron of the whole of Europe," almost replacing the American one.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov also accused Macron of acting like Napoleon. He said, "It was also very strange to hear that Macron in a very aggressive manner, continuing the work of Napoleon, who wanted to conquer Russia."
Meanwhile, a former president of the European Commission, Jose Manuel Barroso, said he understood Macron's reasoning. NHK spoke with Barroso in Tokyo on Thursday.
Barroso noted that France is the only country in European Union that has nuclear weapons and able to use this deterrent. He said that while he is against using the weapons, unfortunately it is sometimes necessary to provide this guarantee.
Barroso referred to an emergency meeting in Brussels of European leaders. They broadly agreed to gather up to 800 billion euros, or about 860 billion dollars, for security. Barroso said, "It's not only important to spend more, invest more, but to do it more in a European collective way."
Source: NHK World
