French president urges swift Mideast stability to ease global economic tensions

French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday said that restoring stability in the Middle East is essential to easing mounting pressure on the global economy, calling for urgent and coordinated action.

“We all have an interest in restoring stability as quickly as possible so that the global economy can calm down,” Macron said at an informal EU summit in Greek Cyprus.

Calling for stronger European engagement, Macron said: “It is very important that we bring together several leaders from the region to provide our support to Lebanon, in very concrete terms."

He added: “Europe must step up its engagement further.”

He reiterated that France “will organize a support conference” for Lebanon, stressing that “drawing on all European contributions is important.”

The conference will also serve to coordinate with regional countries, including Syria and Jordan, which he said “are impacted by the situation in the region.”

Macron also emphasized the need to “continue the work on negotiations, peace, stability in Lebanon and its sovereignty,” while also highlighting “all the work on Hormuz that we have launched jointly with the British last week.”

On defense cooperation, Macron said he had “a good discussion this morning with the chancellor,” adding that France and Germany had “given a mandate to our defense ministries to work on several areas, not simply the future combat aircraft, but different levers of cooperation between our two countries.”

“Our defense ministries have this mandate for the coming weeks. We continue to move forward,” he said.

Stressing Europe’s broader strategic direction, Macron said Europe needs "more unity, more independence, more sovereignty.”