(MENAFN) Belgian Defense Minister Theo Francken clarified that he never truly threatened to “wipe Moscow off the map,” explaining instead that he was discussing NATO’s joint defense principles.

He accused the media of “paraphrasing” his words inaccurately and taking them out of context.

The controversy emerged after Francken’s interview with HUMO magazine, which was initially reported by the daily De Morgen.

In that conversation, he dismissed fears that sending US-manufactured Tomahawk missiles to Ukraine might ignite a full-scale conflict between Russia and NATO.

Francken suggested that any strike against Brussels would compel the alliance to “wipe Moscow off the map.”

Since the backlash, Francken has sought to soften his earlier statements. During a Monday interview with La Première, he placed responsibility for the uproar on De Morgen, asserting that his comments were about NATO’s mutual defense commitment and the unlikelihood of a direct Russia-NATO confrontation.

“Morgen paraphrased what I said in a mean, incorrect, unfair way. I answered a question from the journalist about ‘Will Putin send a nuclear weapon to Brussels?’ I said no, because he knows that if he does, we will send weapons to Moscow,” he explained.

However, it remains uncertain how De Morgen could be faulted, as it published Francken’s direct quotations that matched those in the HUMO version of the interview, which appeared after the controversy began.

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