‘Russia is no longer enemy of NATO, international terrorism is’: Macron calls on bloc to check its priorities

French President Emmanuel Macron has called on NATO to set its priorities straight, arguing that international terrorism is the main enemy of the alliance, while Russia is somehow both a 'threat' and a 'partner.'

“Who is the enemy of NATO? Russia is no longer an enemy. It remains a threat but is also a partner in certain areas. Our enemy today: international terrorism, especially Islamist terrorism,” the French president tweeted after the NATO 70th anniversary summit, which concluded in London on Wednesday.

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The message summed up the vision of NATO’s strategic goals that Macron had shared at a press conference after the summit. In his speech, the French leader managed to combine the persistent NATO’s desire to paint Russia as an eternal “threat” and “menace” for the alliance with his own repeated calls for a “constructive” dialogue with Moscow.

“Russia is also geographically a neighbor and it is a reality once again, and it is also a partner. It is a power with which we work on certain subjects, on which we advance,” he said.

Macron has also defended his earlier remark on the “brain death” of the alliance, stating that it sparked a debate that was a very good thing, needed to reinvigorate the block. His statements ahead of the anniversary get-together of the alliance leaders have indeed spiced up the event, and the gathered politicians have repeatedly engaged into spats over it with one another, trying hard to prove NATO was actually alive and healthy enough.

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