“We stand alongside Moldova and Georgia to defend their sovereignty and security,” Macron told Moldovan President Maia Sandu and Georgian President Salome Zurabishvili.
President Emmanuel Macron affirmed on Saturday his “determination to support our partners in the eastern neighborhood” of the EU “against any attempt at tension and destabilization”, during talks on Ukraine with the leaders of Georgia and of Moldova, reported the Elysée.
“We stand alongside Moldova and Georgia to defend their sovereignty and their security,” Macron told Moldovan President Maïa Sandu and Georgian President Salomé Zurabishvili, adding that he had invited the latter to Paris “early next week”.
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The head of French diplomacy, Jean-Yves Le Drian, had judged possible Friday that the Russian offensive in progress in Ukraine extends to Moldova and Georgia.
These two former Soviet republics both have separatist territories totally turned towards Moscow. That of Transdniestrie, in Moldova, has a military base near the Ukrainian city of Odessa.
“We want to be at the side of those who today fear for their safety”, then explained the Elysée, also citing the Balkan countries and Kazakhstan, and specifying that “there will be other contacts with the countries of Russia’s environment over the next few hours and days”.
Emmanuel Macron convened a defense council on Saturday at 5 p.m. in view of the latest developments on the ground.
The three subjects that must be addressed there are support for Ukraine, sanctions against Russia, and lastly “the various initiatives at the international level, the protection of the French community, and support for Ukrainians who head towards the borders of their country”, explained the Elysée.
From the same source, Paris’ priorities remain, on the one hand, support for Ukrainian resistance to the Russian invasion, and obtaining a ceasefire via a set of measures taken to make the cost of the war too high for Vladimir Putin, including increasing sanctions and the supply of defensive military equipment to Ukraine.
In this regard, the Elysée welcomes in particular the isolation of Russia on Friday at the UN, where it opposed alone a resolution calling for its withdrawal from Ukraine, while China in particular abstained. .
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