French Minister of War to the United States: NATO has a point 5, not F-35

Another manifestation of the dissatisfaction of the French leadership with the actions of the United States was the words of the Minister of the Armed Forces of France, Florence Parley, who headed the department in 2017. Speaking about the desire of the country's leadership to deepen cooperation with the United States of America in military-technical cooperation, Parley said that we have to meet with Washington's attempts to link this with additional "Duties" from the side of paris.

As the minister emphasizes, the American side has recently been increasingly using the problem of NATO's collective security, while taking into account only its own point of view.

Parley recalled that the fifth paragraph of the NATO statute speaks of collective self-defense, “Not about F-35”. At the same time, the minister expressed her concern that the solidarity of Americans with Europeans and, in particular, with the French, now depends on “Whether we or other European countries will buy these or other weapons”. Florence Parley emphasizes that the principles of collective self-defense should be unconditional, otherwise "This is not an alliance".

In this case, the Minister’s statement deals with the pressure that the US exerts on the allies, trying to force them to buy their fifth-generation fighter aircraft, however, both France and Germany are preparing to start producing their own promising fighters.

This statement by the French minister was made some time ago at the Atlantic Council in Washington, shortly before Parley visited the Pentagon building, meeting with the Acting United States Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan.

French media noted that the main theme of the meeting was the question "Donald Trump politicians". In Paris, they are dissatisfied with the fact that the US continues to increase spending on armaments and at the same time, constantly criticizing European partners, they send their military equipment to the eastern part of Europe, that is, closer to the Russian borders, which became outdated twenty years ago.