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End of FCAS 'flagship project' marks setback for Franco-German cooperation and European defence

François Picard is pleased to welcome Ulrike Franke, senior policy fellow at the European Council on Foreign Relations. According to Franke, the demise of the Franco-German FCAS fighter jet project was "not a surprise to anybody". While acknowledging that Dassault was often perceived as "quite difficult to deal with," she argues that the deeper problem lay in a structural design flaw that brought together industrial rivals who "never really had the incentive to properly work together".

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Armenia: Moscow, meddling & the mountain

Taline Papazian is a French-Armenian political scientist and strategic affairs analyst covering Armenia and the South Caucasus. She is also director of the Armenia Peace Initiative Think Tank. She tell us more about what's at stake in Armenia's parliamentary elections.

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Why Ivanka's Albanian dream is a protester's nightmare

Controversy is growing over plans by US President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka and her husband Jared Kushner to build a luxury resort in a nature reserve in Albania. For more, we speak to Erisa Kryeziu, an Albanian journalist for the independent media outlet Citizens.al. She's reported on the protests against the construction activity.

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Romania hit by drone strike: Foreign minister speaks to FRANCE 24

It was 2am when the explosion hit: a Russian drone smashing into the tenth floor of an apartment block in the Romanian town of Galati, just 11 kilometres from the Ukrainian border. Romania scrambled two F-16 fighter jets and a military helicopter, while emergency alerts were sent to residents across the affected region. Two people were injured and the apartment building was swiftly evacuated. The incident has sparked condemnation across NATO capitals and raised fresh concerns about the growing risks along the alliance's eastern flank.

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'We need Operation Eastern Sentry': Romania 'facing Russian threat every week'

Gavin Lee is pleased to welcome prominent Romanian journalist, TV anchor and military analyst Radu Tudor. As tensions continue to rise along NATO's eastern frontier, the latest drone incident in Romania has once again exposed the growing security dilemmas facing frontline alliance states. Tudor sees a pattern of Russian aggression, the vulnerabilities of NATO's eastern flank and the urgent need for stronger allied military capabilities in the region.

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