German Chancellor Angela Merkel has endorsed the idea of developing a joint European aircraft carrier.
The idea was suggested by her party's leader, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, who succeeded Ms Merkel in December as leader of the Christian Democratic Union.
She made the suggestion at the weekend in response to French President Emmanuel Macron's proposals for European Union reform. She noted that Germany and France are already working together on a future European combat aircraft.
She said that "the next step could be to start on the symbolic project of building a common European aircraft carrier" to underline the EU's global security role.
Ms Merkel said that "it's right and good that we have such equipment on the European side, and I'm happy to work on it". But she added that "we have to do other things as a priority".
