In a joint press conference with French President Emmanuel Macron on September 7, 2017, German Chancellor Angela Merkel vowed to pursue a closer co-operation with France, and supported the creation of joint European defence fund, calling it an “important pillar of the integration of the European defence sector.”[1] The fund was originally created by the EU in August 2017, with an annual budget of 5.5 billion euro ($6.1 billion), [2]and lays the basis for permanent European military cooperation and is meant for an autonomous military capacity for the EU to respond to crises.
The French leader had also asked Merkel for a financial and military contribution to a joint anti-‘jihadist regional force’ under the rubric of G5 Sahel made up of forces from Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Mauritania and Niger.[3]
