‘It is up to us to … guarantee our security,’ Macron said on Monday [Philippe Wojazer/Pool/Reuters]

The European Union must stop depending on the United States for security and must now rely on its own military forces for protection, France’s President Emmanuel Macron said.

In a speech to French ambassadors on Monday, Macron said he would put forward new proposals to the EU to boost security and that all European nations, including Russia, should be involved in discussions on defence cooperation.

“Europe cannot rely on the United States only for its security,” he said. “It is up to us to meet our responsibilities and guarantee our security.”

Since his election in May 2017, the 40-year-old leader has campaigned for a more integrated EU with a common defence budget and security doctrine.

During the speech, Macron said cooperation with Russia should occur on the condition that progress is made with Moscow on the fighting in eastern Ukraine.

Paris is pushing for full implementation of the 2015 Minsk peace agreement that was sponsored by France and Germany to settle the conflict in Ukraine, which has killed at least 10,000 people since 2014.

In November, EU countries launched an unprecedented programme of joint military investment aimed at confronting EU security challenges. Twenty-three of the 28 member states signed up to the plan.

‘Turning its back’

Macron called on Europe to be “a trade and economic power” that defends its strategic interests and financial independence with tools that can fend off US extraterritorial sanctions.

“Multilateralism is going through a major crisis which collides with all our diplomatic activity, above all because of US policy,” he said.

Macron also criticised US President Donald Trump’s “aggressive” isolationism.

“The partner with whom Europe built the post-World War order appears to be turning its back on this shared history,” the French president said.

‘In our neighbourhood’

Meanwhile, Germany’s foreign minister said on Monday that European nations must fill the gaps left by the withdrawal of the US from international organisations and key regions of the world.

Heiko Maas told German diplomats in Berlin that Europe should increase its political and financial weight at the United Nations and the World Trade Organization – both of which have come under pressure from Washington since Trump took office last year.

He also urged Europe to step up its activities in the Middle East, Africa and western Balkans, warning that “the cost of war, poverty and displacement in our neighbourhood … is borne by us Europeans”.

Maas said while Europe should seek to “rebalance” its relationship with Washington, “the goal is never ‘Europe first'”.

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It will be Trump’s first hosting of a state visit since he took power in January 2017. The pair will get a sense of their two countries’ shared history during an evening meal on Monday night at Mount Vernon, the home of George Washington, the first U.S. president and Revolutionary War commander whose alliance with France was critical to victory over the British.

The major work between them will be done on Tuesday during White House meetings and a joint news conference.

On Wednesday, President Macron will address a Joint Session of Congress, making the anniversary of the day that French General Charles de Gaulle addressed the Joint Session of Congress, April 25, 1960.

Trump and Macron began their improbable friendship a year ago in Belgium with a jaw-clenching handshake. While other European leaders have kept a certain distance from Trump, Macron has worked hard to remain close to the U.S. president and the two leaders speak frequently by phone.

Macron is on something of a rescue mission for the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), which Trump has vowed to scrap unless European allies strengthen it by mid-May.

The deal reached between Iran, the United States and five other world powers put curbs on Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

Macron said on Fox News Sunday that it would be better to protect the Iran deal instead of get rid of it, saying there is no “Plan B” to take its place.

“Is this agreement perfect and this JCPOA a perfect thing for our relationship with Iran?  No. But for nuclear — what do you have? As a better option? I don’t see it,” he said.

Macron also wants to persuade Trump to exempt European nations from steel tariffs that are part of the U.S. president’s plan to reduce chronic trade deficits with countries around the world, chiefly China.

The two leaders are also expected to discuss Syria, less than two weeks after the United States, France and Britain launched airstrikes in Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that killed dozens in Douma, Syria.

Macron said last week that he believed he had persuaded Trump to keep U.S. troops in Syria, but Trump has been insistent on bringing them home, although he has not publicly provided a definite timetable.

Whether substantive progress will be made on these and other issues was unclear.

“Whether we will actually solve, or come to closure, or a full detailed agreement on some of the issues that we’ve touched on is difficult to say at this remove,” a senior administration official told reporters on Friday.

The post Trump, Macron to face differences on Iran, trade, as French visit begins first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.