French foreign minister: Europe is not reducing support for Ukraine amid war in Middle East

France's Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has stated that Europe is maintaining its military support for Ukraine despite the mobilisation of US and allied military capabilities for the war in the Middle East.

Source: Jean-Noël Barrot at a press conference following the first day of the G7 ministerial meeting near Paris, as reported by Ukrinform

Details: The French minister agreed that there is a certain mobilisation of US military capabilities in the ongoing war in the Gulf region.

Barrot said that this also involved the mobilisation of military capabilities by a number of countries, such as France, which were not participating in the military operations but had deployed forces to protect and secure their allies, citizens and interests.

The French foreign minister also pointed to President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's presence in Gulf countries, where he had travelled to share what Barrot described as the "unique know-how that has been developed in Ukraine".

Barrot went on to say that this demonstrated the importance – or rather Ukrainian ingenuity – that had enabled the development of a new, cutting-edge form of combined military interaction to defend against aggression, while also highlighting the need for European countries, including Germany and France and their partners, to build ever closer cooperation with Ukraine.

He concluded by saying that Europe remained mobilised in terms of military support for Ukraine, adding that for more than four years there had been repeated claims that a catastrophe was imminent because supplies were about to be cut off, but this had not happened.

Background:

• Finnish President Alexander Stubb had earlier expressed confidence that Europe could reach an agreement with the US president that would help simultaneously address both the oil crisis in the Persian Gulf and the war in Ukraine.
• He also noted that Ukraine could gain certain benefits from the conflict in the Middle East, which may hinder Russia's military cooperation with Iran.

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