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“The cardinal precept is to not harm our capabilities. By supporting Ukraine, we’ve got by no means stripped the military of any operational capability,” a French armed forces ministry official advised reporters Friday.
France’s record additionally doesn’t embody weaponry for this 12 months — extra SCALP missiles, a whole bunch of bombs, 12 Caesars and 100 kamikaze drones are anticipated, and France signed in mid-February a €3 billion bilateral safety cope with Ukraine.
In its personal bilateral safety cope with Ukraine signed final month, Germany promised a brand new €1.1 billion army help bundle.
Additionally not counted is Macron’s announcement that Paris would contribute to a Czech initiative to purchase 800,000 artillery shells from outdoors the EU to assist Ukraine — a big shift within the nation’s traditional emphasis of investing in Europe’s army capabilities.
Nonetheless, whereas international locations together with the Netherlands and Belgium have already introduced contributions, Paris nonetheless has questions earlier than signing a test to non-EU international locations similar to India or South Korea. It desires to know whether or not Prague is speaking about precise off-the-shelf ammunition that may be delivered in weeks or moderately about “manufacturing capability,” wherein case France would moderately put money into European firms. Macron will journey to Prague on Tuesday.
The Kiel Institute stands by its figures, that are based mostly on public bulletins cross-referenced with publicly out there data on nationwide shares.
Talking on the Munich Safety Convention final month, Christoph Trebesch, who runs work on the assume tank’s database protecting army, monetary and humanitarian assist to Ukraine, mentioned the group missed simply 9 Caesar artillery platforms in its earlier evaluation of donations.
Laura Kayali and Clea Caulcutt reported from Paris. Joshua Posaner reported from Berlin.
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