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NATO’S Secretary-General Jens Stoltenburg sided with the US President after his spat with his French counterpart’s call for an EU-wide army. The military alliance’s chief said the EU and US should work on forming stronger joint security operations rather than pursuing separate agendas. Mr Stoltenburg’s comments come after a public clash of opinions between Mr Trump and Mr Macron following the French President’s call for a “real European army” in a broadcast interview.

In a Twitter retort, the US President branded his counterpart’s comments “insulting”. Mr Stoltenburg said: “More European efforts on defence is great but it should never undermine the strength of the transatlantic bond. “This is partly about substance but also partly about perception because perception matters. “If we speak too much about a phrase like, for instance strategic autonomy, it sounds like you’re going to do these big strategic things alone and I don’t think that’s wise.”

Emmanuel Macron's plan for an EU army has been rebuked by Donald Trump and now NATO

He added: “Two world wars and a cold war taught us the importance of doing things together." The NATO chief confirmed EU countries are free to carry out operations with or without their US partners inside the framework of the alliance. But he said he would strongly oppose the EU developing its own military structure that would duplicate the framework of NATO. He said: “The reality is that we need one strong and capable command structure, we can’t divide those resources in two."

Mr Macron, however, received one high-profile support for his EU-wide army suggestion in the shape of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Mr Putin told its state funded broadcaster Russia Today: “Europe is a powerful economic entity, a powerful economic union and it is quite natural that it wants to be independent, self-sufficient and sovereign in matters of defence and security.” And in a move that likely caused fury in Washington, the French President’s finance minister backed a return to European “empire” during a newspaper interview. Bruno Le Maire suggested Brussels should go one further and establish itself as an “empire” when following up on Mr Macron’s EU army demands.

Donald Trump branded Emmanuel Macron's comments 'insulting'

NATO chief Jens Stoltenburg said the EU should not be allowed to duplicate the military alliance