LE BOURGET, FRANCE (AFP) – France on Monday hosted a meeting of European defence ministers to try to smooth out differences over the continent’s joint air defence, after bristling at a German-led project that snubbed its manufacturers.
Held on the margins of the Paris Air Show, the gathering hosted by Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu included around 20 of his counterparts and the European Commission’s internal market chief Thierry Breton.
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius agreed to come after initial reluctance, a French government source told AFP.
“We have two duties: preparing ourselves to assist Ukraine and reinforcing (NATO’s) eastern flank for the long term,” as well as “getting back to fundamentals we were familiar with during the Cold War but have become relevant again,” Lecornu said at the airshow.
“We have to get up to date with technological leaps, different strategic alliances and the fact that world disorder isn’t only coming from the East,” he added.
The meeting is widely seen by observers as a response to the German-led European Sky Shield plan launched in October, under which 16 NATO countries and Sweden plan to use German, United States and Israeli equipment.
France and Poland are notable holdouts from Sky Shield, with Paris keen to promote its own medium-range anti-air missiles.
At stake are huge contracts, with Germany and France alone set to spend EUR10 billion on air defence by 2030.
European defence ministries sharply reduced spending on anti-aircraft equipment following the end of the Cold War, but have been spooked by the invasion of Ukraine last year.
After a EUR2 billion deal for Paris and Rome to buy missiles from European manufacturer MBDA, and a second EUR2.2 billion contract from Poland for its CAMM launchers and missiles, a further joint order is expected after the conference.
France, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary and Estonia could also sign a statement of intent to buy MBDA’s Mistral short-range anti-aircraft missiles, Lecornu wrote in daily Le Figaro.
