The leaders of France and Germany agree that both countries should act for a "strong" Europe.
This is what French President Emmanuel Macron stated after a meeting with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Paris, AFP reports.
At a joint briefing with Macron at the Elysee Palace two days after US President Donald Trump's inauguration, Scholz said the new US leader "will be, and is already so clearly, a challenge."
He added: "Europe will not hide, but will be a constructive and offensive partner."
According to the German chancellor, this position will be "the basis for good cooperation with the new American president".
Scholz pointed out that Europe and the US are linked by a "long history of friendship and partnership", which he called a "solid foundation" for future relations.
He explained Trump has already announced a number of policy measures "which we will of course analyse in detail together with our European partners".
The meeting between the two leaders came on the 62nd anniversary of the Elysée Treaty, a framework for bilateral relations between France and Germany after World War II.
"Our couple is solid," Macron said.
Both he and Scholz stressed the role of close cooperation between their countries for European unity.
"Europe has to be strong and resilient in a world that is, to say the least, on the move," said Scholz, who will stand in parliamentary elections at home next month.
"The only possible response of Europeans to the period we are entering is more unity, more ambition, more boldness and more independence. This is our impulse and this is the direction in which we are going", the French President underlined.
Macron noted that Europe must not only spend more on its own defence, "but also develop its own industrial base, its own capacity, its own industry". | BGNES
