13 November 2015•Update: 13 November 2015
PARIS
French President Francois Hollande has demanded "all the information" on media claims that Germany’s intelligence service snooped on his foreign minister, Laurent Fabius.
"We ask that all the information be given to us," Hollande told reporters on Thursday on the sidelines of a summit on migration in Valletta, Malta.
A report by Berlin’s RBB Info radio has claimed that Germany's spy service, the BND, spied on Fabius plus the International Court of Justice in The Hague as well as the FBI.
Other high-profile targets allegedly included: UNICEF; the World Health Organization; a German diplomat who headed an EU observer mission to Georgia from 2008 to 2011; Voice of America radio; and "numerous European and American companies, including U.S. arms manufacturer Lockheed".
Hollande said: "These kinds of practices should not go on between allies...I know that the [German] Chancellery will do everything it can to explain the circumstances to us in detail."
The French leader said he had been assured that such spying "had completely stopped" but wanted to "see the proof".
The BND has already been criticized for purported secret cooperation with the United States' National Security Agency (NSA).
A previous report by the German weekly Der Spiegel claimed in October, that the BND had spied on embassies and representations of friendly nations, including the U.S. and France until 2013.
Der Spiegel also reported on April 24 that cooperation between BND and NSA aimed at spying on telephone and internet communication in conflict regions from the Bad Aibling station in southern Germany.
