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The leaders of France and Germany met on Friday for critical talks on the future of their defence cooperation after the collapse of a flagship joint fighter jet project last month.
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For French President Emmanuel Macron there is an urgent need to make progress in this area before next spring’s presidential election in which far-right National Rally leader Marine Le Pen is a frontrunner to be his successor.
The prospect of a Le Pen presidency adds yet more uncertainty for European countries already scrambling to boost defence capabilities in the face of the Russian threat and waning US commitment under President Donald Trump.
On Friday morning German Chancellor Friedrich Merz welcomed Macron at the Noervenich air base near Cologne.
The two leaders emerged from a Super Puma helicopter – itself a symbol of successful Franco-German cooperation – before leading a joint defence and security council held next to a French Rafale jet and a Eurofighter, a key component of Germany’s air force.
The full cabinets of both governments got together for talks in a castle near Cologne where French president Charles de Gaulle and German chancellor Konrad Adenauer previously met and agreed on the idea of a friendship treaty between the two countries in 1962.
At the meetings, the two sides are expected to launch a joint “steering group” to deepen cooperation on radar systems, long-range strike capabilities and defence missiles.
On Thursday Macron said that he wanted the meetings to give a “new dynamic” to defence cooperation as part of creating a “powerful Europe which unites our strengths”.
The aim is for the two countries to “bounce back” from last month’s implosion of the joint Future Combat Air System (FCAS) project, which fell victim to bickering between Airbus and France’s Dassault.
There are also fears for another joint project, the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS), which aims to replace battle tanks used by France and Germany, which has also been riddled with internal tensions since Berlin’s Rheinmetall entered the project.
Air defence has been another bone of contention with Germany pushing its European Sky Shield Initiative (ESSI), which relies heavily on the American Patriot and the Israeli‑American Arrow‑3 systems.
France has refused to take part in this project, arguing that it would increase Europe’s dependence on the US and that the continent should instead seek to boost its own defence industry.
One area of convergence may be the idea of a nuclear deterrence scheme led by France. Macron said earlier this year that Germany was one of eight countries which had agreed to participate in this project.
The French leader however stressed that Paris – one of Western Europe’s two nuclear powers alongside the United Kingdom – will retain tight control over nuclear decision-making.
A German government source said that it was important for any French-led project to remain “complementary” to NATO and to avoid creating “different security zones” within Europe.
Macron and Merz are also set to discuss European competitiveness, the EU’s budget, digital regulation and initiatives to fight disinformation in their meeting on Friday.
The pair will also discuss how their countries can enable Europe to compete with the US and China in the artificial intelligence space, by pooling computing capacity and creating a European structure to recruit the best researchers.
Additional sources • AFP