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French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné: “It is necessary to have this debate”

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Juan Mabromata / AFP

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Recently, Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron were far apart in their communication - the two are not necessarily considered best friends in other ways.

France's Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné has now emphasized the similarities between the two countries in an interview.

"There is no Franco-German conflict, we agree on 80 percent of the issues," Séjourné told the French newspaper Le Monde.

He spoke to his German counterpart Annalena Baerbock (Greens), whom he is meeting in Paris on Tuesday.

“There is a desire to talk to each other.”

Séjourné also addressed the points of contention between both countries.

While Chancellor Olaf Scholz (SPD) still does not want to supply Taurus cruise missiles to Ukraine, France has equipped the Ukrainian military with comparable SCALP cruise missiles.

Further deliveries are to follow.

“Different degrees” of support

Sejourné said there were "varying degrees" of support from Germany and France, for example with cruise missiles.

But that's "no drama"; after all, both countries are pursuing the goal of helping Ukraine.

This can be seen as an indication that France thinks it is helping Ukraine more than Germany.

One can also read mild criticism in Séjourné's words regarding France's attitude towards Western ground troops: "I'll say it quite honestly: everything that we ruled out at a certain point in time, we did six months later because of the situation."

Last Monday, French President Emmanuel Macron said at a meeting of numerous heads of state and government that he did not rule out the use of Western ground troops in Ukraine, but Berlin promptly rejected the idea.

From a German perspective, there will be no deployment of ground troops, said Scholz.

Séjourné now said that more coherence is needed in the European approach.

"If you hear German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius saying two weeks before the meeting that we will probably be at war with Russia in the next five years, then in our opinion you have to draw the consequences from that." This debate must take place in Europe become.

Federal Defense Minister Boris Pistorius (SPD) recently warned of a Russian attack.

“We have to take into account that Vladimir Putin will one day even attack a NATO country,” he told the Tagesspiegel.

“Our experts expect a period of five to eight years in which this could be possible.”

sol/dpa