France’s Macron Says Turkey Hasn’t Been Acting Like a NATO Ally

(Bloomberg) -- French President Emmanuel Macron said Turkey hasn’t behaved like a North Atlantic Treaty Organization ally, criticizing its assertion of regional power amid a standoff with the European Union over energy exploration in the eastern Mediterranean.

“Turkey’s strategy in the past few years was not the strategy of a NATO ally,” Macron told a group of reporters during a briefing in Paris on Friday. He cited Turkish interventions in Syria and Libya and the latest dispute, which prompted the EU to threaten Turkey with more sanctions in response to demands by Greece and Cyprus.

“There is a growing frustration in the face of Turkey’s behavior,” EU foreign policy chief Josip Borrell said in Berlin earlier Friday after European foreign ministers discussed the dispute.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg during a phone call on Friday that Turkey will continue to defend its interests “all the time and everywhere.”

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