French President Emmanuel Macron announced the need for Europe to increase investment in the defense industry.
European countries should increase investments in the defense industry in order to get ready for a possible armed conflict, French President Emmanuel Macron said, TASS reports.
‘We must increase investments [in the defense sector] to get ready for a high-intensity war that may come to our continent," Macron said.
The Armed Forces of the Fifth Republic appear to be the only full-fledged army in Europe, the French president said. Macron reminded about the need to strengthen the defense capabilities of the European continent.
As part of his election program, the French president also pledged to increase the annual funding of the French Military Forces to 50 billion euros by 2025.
"Currently, the financing of the army is 40.9 billion euros per year. Despite the crisis, we keep our promise and since 2020, we spend two percent of GDP on defense," he concluded.
Macron said that the other European countries should implement the same strategy to support the military sector.
On March 10, Macron declared that Europe should be prepared for any possible script as far as the supplies of the Russian natural gas were concerned. Russia may use gas supplies as a lever of pressure in the current situation, he said. According to the Macron, France is less dependent on Russian gas than a number of other European countries.