Politico: Paris Has No Intention to Participate in Initiative to Purchase American Weapons for Kyiv

SadaNews - "Politico" reported that Paris has no intention of participating in the initiative to purchase American weapons for Kyiv, as it seeks to develop its own arms production.

 

The newspaper continued that France was not on the list mentioned by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte during his meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump, which included the countries willing to participate in the initiative to buy American weapons for Ukraine. According to the newspaper, French President Emmanuel Macron has long urged Europeans to develop their defense industries by purchasing weapons from local manufacturers.

The newspaper wrote, quoting informed French officials: "For this reason, Paris will not join the initiative to purchase American weapons."

Czech Prime Minister Peter Fiala stated yesterday, Tuesday, that the Czech Republic will not participate in the U.S. president's project to buy weapons from the United States for the benefit of Ukraine, as it is helping Ukraine in other ways.

The U.S. president announced a new plan to supply weapons to Kyiv via NATO on Monday, stating that the United States will sell European countries a large batch of weapons worth billions of dollars, including missiles, air defense systems, and ammunition, which will then be transferred to Ukraine by allies, who will replenish their stocks through new purchases from American manufacturers. Trump confirmed that the plan is fully agreed upon and will be implemented soon with funding from NATO countries.

For its part, Russia believes that the supply of weapons to Ukraine hinders the settlement process and directly involves NATO countries in the conflict, describing it as "playing with fire." Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov pointed out that any shipment that includes weapons for Ukraine would be a legitimate target for Russia. The Kremlin stated that Western supplies of weapons to Ukraine do not contribute to negotiations and will have a negative impact.

Source: Politico