Jean-Noël Barrot has been the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Europe for Emmanuel Macron’s government since September 2024. Photo: LCI.
Guacamaya, October 30, 2025. The French Minister of Foreign Affairs and Europe, Jean-Noël Barrot, stated on Thursday that U.S. military attacks against boats on the high seas ignore international law and maritime law.
Barrot was referring to the Pentagon’s operation against “drug trafficking and narco-terrorism” in the Caribbean and Eastern Pacific, which began after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered the use of force against Latin American drug cartels.
In an interview with LCI, the minister explained, “I have followed the US operations with deep concern, the 13 attacks that have killed dozens of people […] They are ignoring international law and the law of the sea.”
The representative of Emmanuel Macron’s government also expressed his concern for the French Antilles, “where a million of our compatriots live.”
This would be the first time the French government has made official statements about the operation, although it had previously expressed concern about drug trafficking and organized crime in the region.
On the other hand, he was also asked about Trump’s “supposed or real intentions” in this operation, to which he declined to take a position, adding that “it is the people who decide on their own leaders […] that said, we have not recognized the election of Maduro.”
According to Adam Isacson, Director of the Defense Oversight program at the Washington Office on Latin America, 61 people have already been killed in this operation, based on the Donald Trump administration’s own communications.
