Macron: Must Rethink Security Plans

HELSINKI (AP) -- French President Emmanuel Macron says "we must rethink the European security architecture," as he pushes for a continent-wide effort to create "strategic partnerships, including in terms of defense, with our closest neighbors."

Macron wants Europe to take responsibility for its own defense, so that it shouldn't rely so much on the United States for its own security.

He said Thursday that "our interest with Turkey as well as with Russia is to have a strategic partnership which enables to stabilize the relationship with the European Union in the long term."

He added "NATO remains an important alliance."

Macron was in Helsinki where he met with Finnish counterpart Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Juha Sipila during the second leg of a Nordic tour that also took him to Copenhagen, Denmark.

(KA)