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France’s Macron praises Europe’s predictability in apparent swipe on Trump’s US

Meanwhile, French president Emmanuel Macron praised Europe’s “predictability” during a visit to Japan, contrasting it with countries that “could hurt you without even informing you” in an apparent swipe at Donald Trump, AFP reported.

French president Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference with Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo. Photograph: Franck Robichon/AFP/Getty Images

Picking up his famous “fo shur” speech in his Davos speech earlier this year (but without the sunglasses this time round), Macron pointedly praised Europe, despite some of its perceived shortcomings.

“I’m well aware that sometimes Europe can be seen as a continent that is slower than others,” Macron told an audience of Japanese business leaders and investors in Tokyo.

“But predictability has value, and we have demonstrated that over all these past years and, dare I say, even these past weeks: we are where you know we will go,” he added.

double quotation markThat’s not bad, in times like these, believe me.

Macron pointedly criticised countries that said they were “going much faster” than their allies, but “you don’t know whether the day after tomorrow they will still be in that position, and whether tomorrow they won’t make a decision that could hurt you without even informing you”.

The remark was interpreted by AFP to be a reference to the month-long US-Israeli war on Iran, which has responded by virtually closing the vital strait of Hormuz, through which a large share of the oil imported by Japan normally transits.

Key events

Keep cool heads, Poland’s defence minister says in response to Trump’s Nato comments

Meanwhile, Poland’s defence minister Władysław Kosiniak-Kamysz responded to Trump’s comments on Nato, warning that just as “there is no Nato without the US, there is no strong US without allies either.”

“It works both ways,” he said, as he urged leaders to “keep a cool head.”

He continued:

“The world today is focuses more on the Middle East, but the security of Nato’s eastern flank does not take a back seat. Poland plays a key role here in building the region’s security architecture. We are consistently and independently strengthening both our own power and that of our alliance.”

Poland would be among the nations most affected by a potential US withdrawal from Nato as it has positioned itself as one of Washington’s closest European allies. It currently hosts some 10,000 US troops.

Earlier today, a junior French army minister also played down Trump’s comments, stressing that the Iran war has nothing to do with Nato.

“Let me remind you what Nato is. It is a military alliance concerned with the security of the Euro-Atlantic region. It is not designed to carry out operations in the Strait of Hormuz, which would be a breach of international law,” Alice Rufo said at the War + Peace conference in Paris, in comments reported by Reuters.

A German government spokesperson, when asked to react to Trump’s comment, said Germany remained committed to Nato.

“This isn’t the first time he’s done this, and since it’s a recurring phenomenon, you can probably judge the consequences for yourself,” the spokesperson told a regular government press conference, speaking of Trump.

Trump’s latest Nato outburst hits familiar tones, but could he actually mean it this time? – snap analysis

Jakub Krupa

One fairly important thing to note regarding Trump’s comments on Nato is that in both interviews – with the Telegraph (11:06) and with Reuters (15:49) – his strong comments only came in response to very targeted questions angling for that specific line.

That, obviously, does not necessarily mean he does not mean it anyway.

But we know that Trump likes to use very robust language for rhetorical effect, particularly with journalists, and even more so when he is displeased with the state of affairs or events not going his way.

For many European leaders, the real question on their minds will be: is there any actual policy intent behind this, or is it just another verbal outburst like his previous comments accusing Nato allies of being “cowards”?

Wouldn’t you consider pulling out of Nato if you were me?, Trump asks in Reuters interview

In further lines now published by Reuters, Trump said he would state in an address to the national later today that he was “absolutely” considering withdrawing the US from Nato.

“I’ll be discussing my disgust with Nato,” he said of the speech. Asked if he was thinking about pulling out of Nato, he said: “Oh, absolutely without question. Wouldn’t you do that if you were me?”

“They haven’t been friends when we needed them,” Trump said. “We’ve never asked them for much … it’s a one-way street.“

Trump doubles down on suggestions he could take US out of Nato

We are now getting more lines from the US president, Donald Trump, who spoke with Reuters ahead of his address to the nation later today.

Trump told the news agency that he is “absolutely” considering withdrawing US from Nato, and that he would express his “digust” with Nato in his speech, Reuters said.

I will bring you the full quotes once we have them.

Even two-three more weeks of Iran war is too long, Ireland’s finance minister warns

Stock markets have rallied across the world after Donald Trump said the war in Iran would end in “two to three weeks”.

However, Ireland’s premier and deputy premier have said the economic damage being done by the war means that even that is too long.

Tanaiste Simon Harris, who is also Ireland’s finance minister, warned that in just over four weeks the scale of damage to the world’s energy infrastructure has been significant.

Harris said that two to three weeks “might sound like a relatively short period of time”, but the economic and humanitarian impact would be “extraordinarily concerning”.

He said:

“The war is currently ongoing for about 33 days; look at the scale of damage that has been done to the world’s energy infrastructure in that period of time.

We don’t have another 21 days, or thereabouts, to see de-escalation.

We’re already living through the largest energy crisis in the history of the world, bigger than the last three combined.”

Asked if he would be giving an address to Irish citizens about the energy crisis, taoiseach Micheál Martin said:

“We won’t be doing one today, but obviously we’re keeping everything under review.”

Russia dismisses Ukrainian calls for Easter ceasefire as ‘PR stunt’

Back to Ukraine, it is becoming very clear – not that there were any particular doubts before – that Russia is not interested in the Ukrainian proposals for the Easter ceasefire.

The Russian foreign ministry dismissed them as “a PR stunt by Ukraine,” which they said is merely “intended to [allow Ukraine to] make up for losses and continue fighting,” Reuters reported.

US withdrawal from Nato would be major mistake, former Czech PM warns

Meanwhile, former Czech prime minister Petr Fiala responded to Trump’s comments earlier today, warning that “a US withdrawal from Nato would be a major mistake.”

The then-Czech prime minister Petr Fiala meeting with Nato secretary general Mark Rutte in Prague in September last year. Photograph: Michal Čížek/AFP/Getty Images

“It would harm not only Europe, but the United States itself and would have a negative impact on the entire world,” he said.

Fiala said he believed “it will not ultimately come to that,” but warned that “the mere fact that president Donald Trump is publicly considering this possibility clearly shows that we must wake up and start paying much more attention to our own security.”

“The world is more dangerous than before. If we want to maintain our independence, freedom, and quality of life, we must recognise all the challenges and threats and we must act,” he said.

Fiala led the Czech Republic for four years between 2021 and 2025, leaving the office after last year’s parliamentary election.

France’s Macron praises Europe’s predictability in apparent swipe on Trump’s US

French president Emmanuel Macron speaks during a press conference with Japan’s prime minister Sanae Takaichi at Akasaka Palace in Tokyo. Photograph: Franck Robichon/AFP/Getty Images

“I’m well aware that sometimes Europe can be seen as a continent that is slower than others,” Macron told an audience of Japanese business leaders and investors in Tokyo.

“But predictability has value, and we have demonstrated that over all these past years and, dare I say, even these past weeks: we are where you know we will go,” he added.

double quotation markThat’s not bad, in times like these, believe me.

EU declines to comment on Trump’s Nato outburst

Separately, the commission declined to comment on Trump’s latest outburst reported in the Telegraph (11:06), reiterating their policy to “not comment on comments.”

The commission has also responded to Ukraine’s proposals for the Easter ceasefire, broadly backing the proposal.

Foreign affairs spokesperson Anitta Hipper said:

“The EU is supporting the idea of a ceasefire [for] a long time. Russia clearly isn’t, because they have rejected it and they chose just once more [that] they are not at all interested in peace. …

Just [in] the last week alone, Russia launched more than 1000 of drones against Ukraine. …

So what we want to do is to continuously further support Ukraine throughout and also to ensure that Ukraine prevails and the pressure is put on the aggressor and not on Ukraine.”