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Good morning, 

I am happy to participate in this meeting. This ministerial meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) of the Ministers of Defence, [where I am] representing the European Union. It is another occasion to show the strong Transatlantic unity and the strong cooperation between the European Union and NATO. Especially in these troubling days where we are facing the threats of Russia at the Ukrainian border.  

We stand by Ukraine. We stand against the renewal, the coming back of the spheres of influence in Europe. We stand by the Transatlantic unity, which has been shown through the letters we coordinated in order to answer the Russian letters, together with NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg. And we hope that together we will be able to face the Russian threats against Ukraine.  

Q: What's the latest on Mali that we have this morning?

On Mali, we had the meeting yesterday in the Elysée in order to coordinate with the African countries and the Sahelian countries what is going to happen with the Task Force Takuba and with the Barkhane mission in Mali. And now what we are going to see is what are we going to do, us Europeans, with our training missions. I will send a mission to Mali in order to check with the Malian authorities under which conditions and under which guarantees we could consider the possibility of keeping or not keeping our training mission working there. The answer will come in the next days. 

Q: Has France indicated that they are pulling troops out of Mali?

A communication is being done by the President of the French Republic.