REPLAY. Afghanistan: find Emmanuel Macron’s speech after the Taliban take power – Franceinfo

“A historic turning point.” Emmanuel Macron spoke for ten minutes during a televised address, Monday evening August 16, on the situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban took power on Sunday.

The French president felt that “absolute urgency” was “to put our compatriots, who must all leave the country, as well as the Afghans who worked for France” to safety. “Nearly 800 people are already on French soil“, detailed the Head of State, specifying that”two military planes and our special forces (…) will be there in the next few hours ” to carry out the last evacuations.

“Afghanistan must not once again become the sanctuary for terrorism that it was”, also urged Emmanuel Macron, affirming that the action of France “will first aim to continue to actively fight against Islamist terrorism in all its forms.” The president called to “a responsible and united response” : “In this regard, we will do everything so that Russia, the United States and Europe can cooperate effectively, because our interests are the same”, he added.

Finally, Emmanuel Macron said he wanted to carry a European initiative aimed at “to anticipate” and “protect against significant irregular migratory flows” who “feed trafficking of all kinds”, even if “France is doing and will continue to do its duty to protect those who are most threatened”, he promised.