By Athena Papakosta

“Europe can die». With these words, the President of France, Emmanuel Macron, explained that the Old Continent is faced with an “existential threat” due to, as he said, “Russian aggression” and called on the Member States of the European Union to adopt a “reliable defense strategy ” but “less dependent on the United States”.

The French president spoke for two hours in an auditorium at the Sorbonne University in Paris. In his speech he pointed out that Europe is divided in two and remains “slow” and “lacking ambition” at a time when it “needs to become a superpower, defend its own borders and speak with one voice if it wants to survive and prosper.”

Macron’s new statements for a stronger and more integrated European defense are a continuation of his five-year-old well-known stance on Europe’s strategic autonomy and its gradual disengagement from the United States.

They may have preceded, in 2019, his harsh statements that “NATO is brain dead” but the president of France has changed his opinion when the war in Ukraine started, with him noting that the president of Russia woke up the North Atlantic Alliance with “electric shock”.

At the same time, the Secretary General of the Alliance, Jens Stoltenberg, is visiting Berlin, where he will also meet today, Friday, with the German Chancellor, Olaf Scholz.

Mr. Stoltenberg has already tested by flying the capabilities of the Eurofighter fighters and estimated that “it is not too late for Ukraine to win the war” because, as he explained while welcoming the approval of the American aid package, “stronger support is on the way.”

For its part, Moscow is keeping its eye on any further NATO moves after Polish President Andrzej Duda said last Monday that Warsaw was ready to host nuclear weapons if NATO chose to. to strengthen its eastern flank to be able to counter the development of new weapons by Russia and Belarus.

The reaction of Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister, Sergei Ryabkov, was immediate, making it clear that Moscow would make NATO’s nuclear weapons in Poland one of its primary targets, should they be deployed in the country.

This was followed by statements from the representative of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Maria Zakharova, who reiterated that any nuclear weapons developed in Poland would be legitimate targets in the event of an armed conflict with the NATO military alliance.

At the same time, Sweden, now a member of the North Atlantic Alliance, decides to send a battalion to Russia’s bordering Latvia for the first time next year to contribute to NATO’s international force in the Baltic country.

As it became known, the motorized battalion will operate for six months and will consist of 400 to 500 soldiers.

Meanwhile, Croatia has received the first six of a total of 12 French Rafales as part of an agreement with France to modernize its armed forces.