Macron meets Habeck and Baerbock Friday for “private exchange” for the first time
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Status: 7:44 p.m. | Reading time: 2 minutes
– – –Macron wants to offer its European partners more insight into his country’s nuclear deterrence
Credit: AFP / GONZALO FUENTES
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French President Macron is promoting Europe’s military independence from the United States. He needs partners for this vision. On the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, he now meets the party leaders of the Greens – and also other German politicians.
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Dhe French President Emmanuel Macron wants to meet the Greens party leaders Robert Habeck and Annalena Baerbock on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference. The head of state was always interested in German politics and wanted to get in touch with many discussion partners, it said on Wednesday from the Presidential Office in Paris. The first meeting with Habeck and Baerbock is planned on Friday evening as part of a “private exchange”.
Macron will not give a speech at the conference, at which around 40 heads of state and government are expected, but will answer questions from an audience at an event with conference leader Wolfgang Ischinger on Saturday. The 42-year-old’s new proposals on European foreign and security policy are not expected, according to circles from the Élysée Palace.
Macron is committed to making Europe more independent of the superpower USA. Only in the past week had he offered interested European partners a greater insight into the nuclear deterrence of France. After Brexit, France is the only EU country with its own nuclear weapons. The country has around 300 nuclear warheads, ranking third worldwide behind Russia and the United States.
The first meeting had been postponed last year
Macron will speak to around 30 representatives of German business and politics immediately before his appearance at the conference, the French Presidential Office said. Among others, the Greens-European politician Franziska Brantner, Industry President Dieter Kempf and Union parliamentary group leader Johann Wadephul (CDU) were invited. It is also possible that Health Minister Jens Spahn (CDU) will come to the discussion round. The presidential agenda also includes a meeting with the Bavarian Prime Minister Markus Söder (CSU).
A meeting of Macron with Habeck and Baerbock should have already taken place in October last year, said the “mirror“. The meeting was then postponed.
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