French President Emmanuel Macron, "sharing Berlin's skepticism," is "not particularly enthusiastic about the European Commission's 'drone wall' plan," Politico reports, according to UNN.
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"I am cautious about [such] terms. Everything is much more complicated," Macron said upon arriving at an informal EU summit in Copenhagen.
Instead, the French president emphasized, Europeans need to develop early warning systems (France and Germany are currently cooperating on this issue) and countermeasures against drones, acquire "deterrent" deep strike capabilities, and purchase more air defense systems.
Macron also announced a "confrontation" with Russia.
"We are in a state of confrontation with Russia, which has been behaving extremely aggressively in the information space for several years, including during elections, and is intensifying its cyberattacks," the French president said.
As the publication writes, unlike his Finnish and Danish counterparts, who spoke earlier, Macron refrained from using the word "war," and instead mentioned "hybrid threats in the field of confrontation."
"Anyone who violates airspace is subject to repression: that is our right," Macron said, adding: "We are being tested."
The French president also stressed that seizing frozen Russian assets and using them to support Ukraine risks undermining confidence in European financial institutions and could deter investors, the publication writes.
Finding funds on financial markets by issuing new debt obligations guaranteed by the EU and national budgets is a "very good idea," Macron said. A representative of the Élysée Palace earlier this week stated that France is interested in this option provided the burden of the loan is equally distributed and only if it does not affect France's disastrous public finances, the publication indicates.