France organized this Monday, June 19 a ministerial conference on the anti-aircraft defense of Europe, whose shortcomings the war in Ukraine revealed. On this occasion, Emmanuel Macron announced that a Franco-Italian-made surface-to-air defense system is now operational in Ukraine.
A medium-range SAMP/T system is now in action in Ukraine. For the Élysée, this announcement is also a way of indicating to its partners that there are therefore alternatives to American anti-missile systems.
Paris is firmly opposed to the anti-missile shield project carried by Berlin, which advocates the off-the-shelf purchase of American Patriot systems and Israeli long-range systems.
For Emmanuel Macron, the question of the choice of equipment to defend the European sky is strategic. It is also, he specifies, an equation of sovereignty. It is necessary to privilege, says the French president, the industrial and technological base of European defense, because the United States, at any time, can have other priorities.
Emmanuel Macron also pleads for a forced march to multiply common projects and strengthen armament stocks, and he confesses: “ Fortunately the war was not on our soil, he said, we did not have enough stocks of materials. »
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