France also negotiates with Ukraine on minerals for its defense provision
The French Defense Minister, Sébastien Lecornu, has revealed Thursday that since October he negotiates with Ukraine his supply in minerals necessary for the manufacture of his weapons, but has assured that, unlike the US, it is not to obtain compensation for the help provided to kyiv during the war.
In an interview with the radio station France Info, Lecornu explained that these negotiations have carried out with the Ukrainian Defense Holder, and that it is not necessary to be “naive” because “economic issues are always intermingled with the military, strategic or security” and France also defends their interests.
“Me,” he said, “with my counterpart the Ukrainian Minister of Defense, we talked about this issue for our own French needs. Because I have armament industries that will need to access a certain number of raw materials in the coming years. ”
Asked about the will manifested by the US President, Donald Trump, to obtain a reimbursement of the money that the US has dedicated to the Ukraine War, the French minister has not wanted to enter fully, but made a point. “Let’s not be naive, what makes (President) Emmanuel Macron for months is to defend French interests in this field,” he said, before remembering that there are many interests at stake.
Lecornu, on the other hand, made it clear that France will not share the decision on the use of its own nuclear weapons in the debate on a possible extension of the coverage of its capacity for deterrence to Europe.
The French head has struggled to avoid the question of the possible sending of European interposition troops to Ukraine as a guarantee in case of a peace agreement. “We are not there,” he replied, when asked about the figure that has circulated of 30,000 military in which France has supposedly been working with the United Kingdom, and has described as “a media figure.” In any case, he has recognized once again that the sending of troops would be one of the possible “in the last stadium”, knowing that Russia violated Minsk’s agreements signed in 2014 between Moscow and kyiv.
Lecornu has insisted that there are no surprises because Donald Trump says that Ukraine will not enter NATO, but that “the real surprise” is that in his bilateral conversations with Russia “important concessions are made from the beginning of the negotiation.” (EFE)
