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Austrian president agrees with Macron on NATO’s brain-dead diagnosis

Van der Bellen emphasized that the EU oftentimes finds it difficult to arrive at a unified decision regarding foreign policy because the concurring opinion of all the 28 states is required

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen Mikhail Mettsel/TASS

Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen

© Mikhail Mettsel/TASS

VIENNA, November 12. /TASS/. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen has agreed with the opinion of French President Emmanuel Macron regarding the European security and NATO, the Austrian leader shared his ideas following the talks in Vienna with his Belarusian counterpart Alexander Lukashenko.

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Van der Bellen emphasized that the EU oftentimes finds it difficult to arrive at a unified decision regarding foreign policy because the concurring opinion of all the 28 states is required and not just a greenlight from one president or foreign ministry. "It often takes a lot of time to reach a joint opinion. I used to sarcastically note that looking at the EU political structure it is not as surprising how much time is required but rather the fact that the EU exists at all."

"You are aware of the initiative of President Macron that he shared with Great Britain’s The Economist. I think that Macron is right on various accounts about the diagnosis. We will be engaged in long discussions trying to find a way out of this," the Austrian president responded to a reporter’s question on the security in the EU.

On November 7, French President Emmanuel Macron warned in an interview with The Economist about a total lack of coordination within NATO and declared that Europe is experiencing "the brain death of NATO." He also noted that Europe needs to start regarding itself as an independent geopolitical power or, otherwise, it will "no longer be in control" of its destiny. NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg and German Chancellor Angela Merkel voiced their disagreement with such an account.

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