Macron snubs US arms in defence spat with Trump

Europe should not spend higher defence budgets on US-made weapons, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview due to air Sunday, after a defence row with President Donald Trump.

One of dozens of world leaders attending World War I commemorations in France this weekend, Trump tweeted after landing in Paris that Macron's call for a "real European army" was "insulting".

In an interview recorded on Saturday with CNN after talks with Trump, Macron said the two leaders had spoken about what his office has portrayed as a misunderstanding.

"We had a regular discussion this morning and he confirmed in front of the press that he was ok," Macron told CNN.

Both leaders agree there should be "better burden-sharing within NATO", meaning Europe should be less reliant on US spending for its defence, Macron said.

But Macron told CNN: "To be very direct with you, what I don't want to see is European countries increasing the budget in defence in order to buy American and other arms or materials coming from your industry."
He refrained from commenting on Trump's "insult" tweet, beyond saying, "I always prefer having direct discussions or answering questions than making my diplomacy through tweets."