French, German companies to work with Ukraine to speed up arms production - Macron

BERLIN. March 15 (Interfax) - French and German companies will work with Kiev to speed up the production of weapons in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday.

"Our industrial manufacturers are going to work together with Ukrainians in order to produce weapon systems even faster," Macron told a joint press conference with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Berlin on Friday.

"I would like to thank the chancellor, who has assumed a special responsibility for joint arms production on Ukrainian territory. Now we want to get down to business," Macron said.

Earlier this month, French Armed Forces Minister Sebastien Lecornu said that KNDS, a Franco-German maker of main battle tanks, is among the companies which intend to manufacture military equipment in Ukraine, Bloomberg reported.

Macron and Scholz met in Berlin on Friday to settle differences over Ukraine. Earlier, a report from Politico referred to the meeting between the French and German leaders as an "effort to reduce tensions over Ukraine that have spilled out into the open in recent weeks."

"The leaders intend the meeting to be a show of unity following a tense period in which Franco-German frictions over Ukraine have descended into an open feud," it said

Differences between France and Germany's approaches towards the Ukraine situation "began to boil over" in late February when Macron stated that the West should not rule out sending troops to fight in Ukraine, Politico said. Scholz, as well as leaders in the United States and numerous other countries, objected to Macron, point out that NATO has agreed from the very start of the Ukraine conflict not to deploy troops to the country.