MOSCOW (Reuters) – The Kremlin on Wednesday criticised comments by French President Emmanuel Macron that Paris is open to deploying nuclear-armed warplanes in other European countries, saying it would not enhance the continent’s security.
“The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkey,” Macron told France’s TF1 television on Tuesday.
“We are ready to open this discussion. I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come,” he said.
Asked about Macron’s comments, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: “The proliferation of nuclear weapons on the European continent is something that will not add security, predictability and stability.”
“Right now, the entire system of strategic stability and security is in a deplorable state for obvious reasons,” Peskov said.
Macron first floated the idea of extending the protection of France’s nuclear arsenal to other European countries in March.
The Kremlin said at the time that this amounted to an assertion by France of “nuclear leadership in Europe”, which it said was “very, very confrontational.”
(Reporting by Dmitry Antonov, Writing by Lucy Papachristou and Mark Trevelyan, Editing by Timothy Heritage)
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