Ians

Paris: French President Francois Hollande has that the European Union (EU) "does not need external advice" to tell it what it has to do, a media report said on Tuesday.

Hollande's remarks came on Monday in response to US President-elect Donald Trump's comments on topics such as the EU and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).

"Europe will always be ready to pursue trans-Atlantic cooperation, but it will base its decisions on its interests and values," Hollande said at a ceremony for outgoing US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hollande also said that the NATO "will be obsolete only when threats have also become obsolete."

In the interview with The Times of London and German newspaper Bild published on Monday, Trump said the future of the EU is "very tough" and a Brexit would not have happened if people had not been forced to take in refugees.

Trump also said NATO was "obsolete because it was not taking care of terror," and he complained that various members of the bloc were not paying their dues, which was "very unfair to the US".

scrollToTop