Leaders of France and Greece say the EU's defense splurge is no alternative to the NATO alliance

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — The European Union’s ongoing push to bolster its own defensive capabilities isn’t intended to spawn an alternative to the NATO alliance but to answer a long-standing U.S. call for the continent to take charge of its own security, the French president said Saturday.

Emmanuel Macron said Europe mustn’t act to weaken NATO, which connects the continent with its American ally. Instead, Europeans are now stepping up to meet Washington’s demand made over the past decade “sometimes nicely, sometimes less nicely” to take care of their own security.

“The lesson we must draw is, let us no longer be dependent,” Macron said after talks with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis. “We Europeans must strengthen this European pillar of NATO, we must strengthen this Europe of defense — not against anyone, not as an alternative to anything.”

Mitsotakis echoed the French president, saying the U.S. should be pleased that the EU is taking its own self-reliance seriously and investing more in its own defense, calling the American demand to spend more “justified.”

After traveling to Cyprus for an informal European Union leaders’ summit, Macron visited the Greek capital to renew a 2021 defense partnership between France and Greece that includes a mutual assistance clause in case of an armed attack against either.

“This mutual assurance and assistance clause is inviolable, and it is not up for debate between us,” Macron said. “So there are no question marks, no doubts to be entertained — and all our potential, or real, enemies need to be very clear about that.”

The 3-billion-euro agreement included the purchase of 24 Rafale fighter jets and four state-of-the-art frigates including the Kimon, which Macron and Mitsotakis visited Saturday.

Greece, which has long had troubled relations with its eastern neighbor Turkey, has been overhauling its military capabilities, and much of its defense procurement has come from France. Among those is the French MICA anti-air-missile system that can be used by aircraft, land forces and warships.

Both leaders hailed the agreement as an example for other EU partners to follow and boost the 27-member bloc’s competitiveness. Mitsotakis encouraged EU leaders to drop “national egotism” that pulls a protective curtain over their domestic industry and move forward with more mergers to produce economies of scale.

Macron underscored the need for European industry to innovate and win back consumers with better, more desirable products that will finance the EU’s defense goals.

“All of us Europeans — the Franco-Greek relationship is a prime example — need to buy more European products, produce more European goods, and innovate more within Europe," he said.

Both leaders referred to Article 42.7, the EU’s own mutual defense clause, that Macron said wasn’t “just empty words.” The French president pointed to both countries’ rush to assist fellow EU member Cyprus by dispatching warships there in early March after a Shahed drone struck a British base on the island nation during the Iran war.

The French president warned against instigating panic with talk about fuel shortages as a result of the closure of the Strait of Hormuz from which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and gas passes. He said the fuel supply remains “under control” and that he doesn’t foresee any shortages.

He said Europe remains focused on helping to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, although he acknowledged that it will take some time for the situation to return to normal.

Mitsotakis said Greece, as a global shipping power, wants any diplomatic solution to include a “non-negotiable” clause for the complete and unimpeded freedom of navigation through the strait without exacting tolls from ships, as was the case prior to the start of the Iran war.