EU needs strategic relationship with Russia on defense, Macron says

The European Union should modernize its post-Cold War relations with Russia, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Thursday. The EU also needs a strategic relationship with Turkey, including in defense matters, Macron said in a news conference in Helsinki alongside Finnish President Sauli Niinisto. “It is in our interest for the EU to have a strategic relationship with Turkey as well as with Russia that brings stability, that will in the long term and bring more strength and coherency,” said the French president. He noted that the EU’s relations with Russia needed to be “brought up to date,” using the Italian word “aggiornamento,” Reuters reported. “I think that on matters like cybersecurity, defense, strategic relationships, we could envisage the outlines of a new relationship between Russia and the EU which is coherent with the direction Europe is headed in,” Macron said.