French President Emmanuel Macron has issued a sweeping pledge of military support for Greece, telling an audience at the ancient Roman Agora in Athens that France would stand by Greece if its sovereignty were threatened, as both leaders warned that Europe faces an existential moment requiring urgent rearmament and strategic autonomy.
"If your sovereignty is threatened, do whatever it takes," Mr. Macron said, standing alongside Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis amid the ruins. "We will be here for you."
Mr. Macron described the current geopolitical climate as a turning point for the European Union, calling on the bloc to mobilize its own financial and industrial resources for defense rather than relying on external powers.
He held up the 2021 Franco-Greek strategic defense partnership — renewed this week in Athens — as the model for European alliances in an era of global disorder, and stressed that Europe's support for Ukraine must be sustained regardless of shifting transatlantic dynamics.
Mr. Mitsotakis echoed the urgency, warning that the EU has historically been too slow to respond to rapid global shifts and that the coming years will be decisive for the bloc's survival as a coherent strategic actor. He described the Franco-Greek bond as a pillar of Mediterranean stability that transcends conventional diplomacy.
Both leaders framed the moment not only as a crisis but as an opportunity — a chance for Europe to forge a unified and sovereign future rather than remain dependent on alliances whose reliability can no longer be taken for granted.
Mr. Mitsotakis was accompanied by his daughter Sofia.
His wife, Mareva Grabowski-Mitsotaki, is recovering from emergency surgery and was unable to attend.
The setting — one of Athens' most historically resonant sites — lent the occasion a symbolic weight that both leaders appeared to embrace deliberately, invoking the ancient foundations of European civilization as backdrop for a debate about its future.