« Fox News » - Entretien de Jean-Noël Barrot

Q - Joining us tonight is Jean-Noël Barrot, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. Mr. Minister, we appreciate your time. I want to talk about Iran and talk about a lot of things in foreign policy, but I will note that your president, Emmanuel Macron, reached out to President Trump and the First Lady, one of many European leaders, to do so after this weekend's events at the White House Correspondents' Dinner. 

R - Yes, and we've been shocked by the attack during the dinner. We were relieved that no one was harmed. There is no place for political violence in democracy, especially not at an event that is meant to celebrate the freedom of the press and the First Amendment. 

Q - I want to talk to you about these talks and where you all see it from a France point of view, and if you think that there is a productive light at the end of the tunnel here by what the Iranians are coming to the table with. 

R - Well, the only way out of this crisis, it seems to me, is for the Iranian regime to consent to major concessions and to radical change, to give up its nuclear program. But we cannot only focus on the nuclear program, because as I was saying, the ballistic capacity, the support to terrorist groups and proxies in the region constitutes threats that we cannot accept. 

Q - Yeah, and in fact, the ballistic missiles, obviously fired at Diego Garcia, showed that they had missiles that could reach a lot farther than they ever admitted to having missiles that could travel that far. President Trump has not shied away from being critical of European nations, specifically NATO. Here he is talking about NATO as we recently as a couple of weeks ago. 

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Q - Obviously, a lot of people mentioned NATO in a long relationship, and NATO and 9-11 stepping up for the U.S., but the president is very clear of being dissatisfied with the support specifically in the Strait of Ramirez. 

R - Well, let me first recall that France, my country, has deployed its military capacity massively since day one to protect some of our allies that are also allies to the U.S. Our view is that NATO doesn't have much to do with Iran. And NATO is a two-way street, and everyone knows that Europe has benefited from the protection of NATO, but that the U.S. also have benefited from NATO as a way to ensure the credibility of their nuclear deterrence, their ability to project force, in particular in Europe, but also as a way to develop their defense industry. 

Q - You know, I talked to, obviously, President Macron last time he was here. Here's a piece of that about their relationship. 

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Q - Weeks after that, now, there's been some bumpy roads here, Mr. Minister. How do you describe the relationship now? 

R - What I can say, and what I will say, is that the friendship between the French and the American people goes way back, 250 years ago, Lafayette, Jefferson, and Washington. And yes, indeed, we sometimes do have a disagreement, even sometimes strong disagreements. We've had some of them. Fortunately, we've always been able to overcome them. 

Q - A lot of questions. We've been focused on Iran, about what's happening in the Middle East. We haven't talked as much about Ukraine and Russia. Is that going to come to an end? How do you see it? It's in your neighborhood. Is there hope there? 

R - Ukraine is holding up. It survived the toughest winter in recent history and is now gaining ground, actually. Well, at the same time, Putin is failing. He's failing military with a loss of one million casualties since the beginning of this war of aggression and more than a thousand casualties every day. The Ukrainians have expressed their willingness to reach settlement peace. So far, the main obstacle to peace has been Vladimir Putin himself. 

Q - You also are working on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons at the United Nations, and you see a lot of hope there. 

R - Yes, indeed. There is this treaty that was signed almost 60 years ago that was meant to prevent the dissemination, the proliferation of nuclear weapons, and to prevent a race to nuclear weapons. We need this treaty to be upheld, and that's the reason of my presence today. In particular, we need Iran and North Korea to refrain from developing their nuclear program that are causing threat for international security and global peace. 

Q - Well, good luck with that. Mr. Minister, thanks again for the time. 

R - Thank you.