French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said Thursday he saw no reason to reconsider France’s 2013 decision to deny Edward Snowden asylum, days after the former NSA contractor said he would be interested in relocating to France, reports FRANCE 24.
Le Drian told CNews television that when Snowden first asked for asylum in 2013, the French government felt it was not "appropriate" and that nothing has since altered that view.
"He asked for asylum in France – and also elsewhere – in 2013. At that time, France believed it was not appropriate and I don't see anything that has changed today, either from a political point of view or a legal one," Le Drian said.
More than a dozen countries have turned down requests to take in the 36-year-old.
Snowden has been living in Russia to escape US prosecution since June 2013 after leaking classified documents detailing government surveillance programmes. He said in an interview broadcast Monday that he would like French President Emmanuel Macron to grant him the right to live in France.
“I applied for asylum in France in 2013 under [former president François] Hollande and of course we would love to see Macron offer an invitation,” he told France Inter radio from Moscow.
He added that it was sad that the "only place an American whistleblower has the chance to be heard is not in Europe but here [in Russia]".
But Snowden has yet to make another official request for asylum, Le Drian said.
"For now, he has made the request just through the media, but I don't see any reason to change the position [of France]," Le Drian told CNews.