The aircraft carrier and its escort will “be able to join the Mediterranean” to allow aircraft loaded on the aircraft carrier to fly “straight north to Romania, where they will have surveillance and deterrence capacity,” the minister said. Armed Forces Florence Parley.
French Armed Forces Minister Florence Parley announced on BFMTV on Thursday night that the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle and its escort had left Cyprus “to adapt” to the new situation “in connection with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Initially, the French aircraft carrier left for the Mediterranean in early February to take part in the battle against Islamic State (or ISIS) in Syria and Iraq.
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The aircraft carrier and its escort will be “able to reach the Mediterranean Sea”, an area that will allow aircraft that boarded the aircraft carrier (…) to carry out celestial police, reconnaissance and reconnaissance missions; “These planes will fly north to the territory of Romania, where they will have the capacity to monitor and deter,” she said. “Our mission is strictly deterrent, we are not militant,” she added. The Minister recalled that France has conducted “air missions since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine.” “Since February 24, we have been sending fighter jets and their tankers from France to carry out these defense missions for the benefit of the Baltic States and Poland.
Visit to Romania on Sunday
The French minister will also travel to Romania on Sunday to meet with about 500 troops sent from France to the country. “I will go to Romania on Sunday to see our soldiers,” the minister said on Thursday night, interviewed by franceinfo. “We have deployed them because we owe aid and solidarity to countries that belong to the European Union, that belong to the Atlantic Alliance and that are closest to this conflict,” she added. “We want to send a dissuasive message to Russia so that Russia does not take another step and does not think of crossing the border that makes up the Atlantic Alliance; “We are countries that are bound by a solidarity pact, and Russia knows that if one of us is attacked, then the whole Alliance will take revenge,” she warned.
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France wants to “signal to Russia that we are defending ourselves and that we will defend ourselves if we are attacked; we are also sending a message to our partners, our allies, to whom we owe solidarity and assistance, “she continued. “France will do this by sending, as it is doing now, 500 troops to Romania, and I will visit them in three days.” Florence Parley also said France had “made several deliveries” of weapons “since the beginning of this week”. “They were delivered to the Ukrainians,” she said, declining to give further details. Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24th and the Russian military stepped up strikes on Ukrainian cities on Thursday, killing 33 people in a residential area of Chernihiv in the north. Russian and Ukrainian negotiators agreed on Thursday, after a second session of talks, on “humanitarian corridors” for the evacuation of civilians.