PARIS (Reuters) -The automaker Renault confirmed on Sunday that it was contacted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for drone production, after press information that the group could settle in Ukraine for this reason.
The Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu announced on Friday on LCI that “a large company producing French cars” was soon going to embark on “a win-win partnership” with Kyiv.
“We will embark on a completely new partnership where a large company producing French cars (…) will ally with an SME of French defense to arm production lines in Ukraine to be able to produce drones,” said the minister.
Renault confirmed on Sunday that it had been contacted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for drone production without confirming where this project would take place.
“We were contacted by the Ministry of the Armed Forces for a drone production. Exchanges have taken place, no decision is made at this stage because we are expecting details on this project from the ministry,” the group told Reuters.
Contacted by Reuters, the Ministry of the Armed Forces reiterated the words of Sébastien Lecornu on Friday according to which he “does not belong [au] Ministry of indicating which automotive manufacturer participates in this project, this is the responsibility of the industrialist “.
Franceinfo, citing information collected by him, reported earlier that Renault was going to settle in Ukraine to produce drones.
Regarding the French Defense SME which could participate in the partnership announced by Sébastien Lecornu, the Ministry of the Armed Forces said that it “(left) the care for the partner concerned to communicate”.
The executive vice-president of the European Commission in charge of industrial strategy, Stéphane Séjourné, said in March that automobile subcontractors, or even manufacturers, could participate in certain military orders to help strengthen the European defense industry.
So far, this cooperation has only materialized during the acquisition of the Brittany foundry by Europlasma, which plans to diversify the automotive production of the Breton site towards the manufacture of hollow bodies of shells.
(Gilles Guillaume report, written by Camille Raynaud, edited by Kate Entringer)
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