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France to send fighter jets to patrol Baltics

France is sending four of its fighter jets to patrol over the Baltic states in a symbolic show of solidarity amid growing anxiety in the region over Russia's intervention in Ukraine. President François Hollande is also set to pay a visit to Georgia in the coming weeks.

France to send fighter jets to patrol Baltics
France is to send four fighter jets to patrol over the Baltics, in a show of solidarity as tension mounts of Russia's agression i nthe Ukraine. Photo: Karim Sahib/AFP

Four French fighter jets will join NATO air patrols over the Baltics starting on Sunday, France's chief of defense staff said on Wednesday during a visit to Washington.

General Pierre de Villiers said the four fighter aircraft, either Mirage 2000 or Rafale jets, would fly from a base in Poland, amid growing anxiety in Baltic countries over Russia's intervention in Ukraine.

"They will participate in the air policing mission over the Baltic states, from Poland," he told reporters.

In another measure of "reassurance," France also is deploying an AWACS early-warning radar aircraft to patrol the skies over Romania, the general said.

The United States announced Tuesday it was deploying 600 airborne troops for exercises in Poland, Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia in a show of solidarity with NATO members bordering Russia.

But the French officer said his political leaders had not ordered further steps to support alliance members.

"For the moment, the guidance is very clear, we do not go beyond that," he said.

The French military, which is overseeing the land element of NATO's response force through 2014, would be ready to expand its presence in Eastern Europe as required, he added.

The Baltic states, which gained independence from the former Soviet Union in 1991, joined NATO in 2004 but lack sufficient aircraft to police their own skies, so larger NATO members take turns patrolling their airspace.

Hollande to visit Georgia

French President Francois Hollande will soon visit Georgia as Paris seeks to boost ties with the pro-Western ex-Soviet country, his foreign minister said on Thursday.

The French leader's visit – due in May – will come at a time of high tensions in the region, as the crisis in Ukraine triggers an increasingly strident war of words between the West and Russia.

"The French president will be here in a few days, the visit is being prepared," Laurent Fabius said on a joint visit to Georgia with his German counterpart Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

The two foreign ministers were in Tbilisi a day after having visited Moldova in an attempt to boost both countries' bid to formally sign a political and trade agreement with the European Union.

The agreement is the same one that was rejected by then Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych in November under Russian pressure, triggering mass protests against his rule.

The rallies led to his ouster in February and Moscow's takeover of Ukraine's Russian-speaking peninsula of Crimea in March.

The crisis in Ukraine is of particular concern to Georgia, which fought a brief war with Russia in 2008.

Moscow has several thousand troops stationed in the country's breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia which it recognized as independent states.

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RUSSIA

Russia announces no New Year’s greetings for France, US, Germany

US President Joe Biden, France's Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will not be receiving New Year's greetings from Russian leader Vladimir Putin, the Kremlin said on Friday.

Russia announces no New Year's greetings for France, US, Germany

As the world gears up to ring in the New Year this weekend, Putin sent congratulatory messages to the leaders of Kremlin-friendly countries including Turkey, Syria, Venezuela and China.

But Putin will not wish a happy New Year to the leaders of the United States, France and Germany, countries that have piled unprecedented sanctions on Moscow over Putin’s assault on Ukraine.

“We currently have no contact with them,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

“And the president will not congratulate them given the unfriendly actions that they are taking on a continuous basis,” he added.

Putin shocked the world by sending troops to pro-Western Ukraine on February 24.

While Kyiv’s Western allies refused to send troops to Ukraine, they have been supplying the ex-Soviet country with weapons in a show of support that has seen Moscow suffer humiliating setbacks on the battlefield.

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