France denies the West is at war with Russia — RT World News
Sending tanks to Ukraine does not make the country or its allies a party to the conflict, Paris says
The fact that the United States, Germany and several other countries have announced that they will supply Ukraine with main battle tanks does not mean that NATO is at war with Moscow, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs said on Wednesday. Foreign Affairs. The Quai d’Orsay’s comments come after German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock’s controversial speech to the European Parliament earlier this week.
“We are not at war with Russia and none of our partners are,” Ministry spokeswoman Anne-Claire Legendre said Thursday, according to AFP. “The delivery of military equipment (…) does not constitute co-belligerence.”
The day before, Washington announced that it would send more than 30 of its M1 Abrams tanks to kyiv, while Berlin said it would provide more than a dozen Leopard 2 panzers and would not stand in the way of Poland and the others. EU and NATO members who wish to hand over theirs to Ukraine as well.
Seeking to rally support for tank deliveries on Tuesday, Baerbock told the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly (PACE) that the EU must move forward at the same pace. “Because we are waging a war against Russia and not against each other.”
Asked for clarification, the German Foreign Ministry said Russia had launched a “war of aggression” against Ukraine and that international law was “clear” that Berlin’s support for kyiv “The individual right of self-defence, guaranteed by the Charter of the United Nations, does not make Germany a party to the conflict.”
On Wednesday, French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne told parliament in Paris that her government was “let’s continue our analysis” of the proposal to send Leclerc tanks to Ukraine. France has already promised kyiv a number of AMX-10s “light tanks” earlier this month.
Meanwhile, French FM Catherine Colonna traveled to Ukraine on Thursday, meeting her counterpart Dmitry Kuleba in Odessa to “show France’s support over time” and “evaluate the urgent needs of Ukraine in the humanitarian and military sectors in order to provide concrete responses”, according to a press release from the Quai d’Orsay.
rt Gt
