William Molinié (special envoy to Slovakia) with AFP / Photo credits: Michal Cizek / AFP
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7:13 p.m., May 31, 2023
French President Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday for the granting of “tangible and credible” security guarantees to Ukraine, pending its accession to NATO, and pleaded for a more powerful defense Europe within the Alliance. , despite the reservations of many Central and Eastern European countries. During a speech at the Globsec Regional Security Forum in Bratislava, he also invited the European Union to “rethink” its governance and “invent” other “formats” in order to be able to integrate candidates for membership more quickly, from the Balkans to Ukraine and Moldova.
“Give Ukraine the means to prevent any new (Russian) aggression”
“If we want … to weigh against Russia, if we want to be credible vis-à-vis the Ukrainians, we must give Ukraine the means to prevent any new (Russian) aggression and include it in (a) credible security architecture”, hammered the head of state. “This is why I am in favor, and this will be the subject of collective discussions in the coming weeks, between now and the Vilnius summit, of giving tangible and credible security guarantees to Ukraine”, he said. He insists.
On July 11 and 12, NATO heads of state and government must reaffirm their political and military support for Ukraine, which has been plagued by a Russian offensive for 15 months, which also worries neighboring countries from the Soviet glacis. .
Deliveries of weapons and technologies
These guarantees could be granted by the various member states of NATO, pending entry of Ukraine into the Alliance, which will remain very distant as long as it is at war with Russia. They can go through the delivery of weapons and technologies as well as the training of military personnel, in particular fighter pilots, likely to bring it closer to NATO standards as quickly as possible. “We must build something between the security provided to Israel (by the United States, editor’s note) and full and complete membership” in NATO, underlined Emmanuel Macron, judging a consensus on membership in Vilnius unlikely.
In the east, some fear that insufficient engagement by Ukraine’s allies could lead to freezing the current frontline and consolidating Russia’s territorial gains without bringing peace. “A frozen conflict will only give Russia a respite to prepare for another aggression,” said Slawomir Debski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).
Emmanuel Macron, whose diplomatic initiatives since the start of the Russian offensive have often left his partners in the East doubtful, if not suspicious, also wanted to be reassuring on this point. “Peace cannot be a ceasefire that enshrines a state of affairs and would amount to creating a frozen conflict,” he said. “We must put ourselves in a position to support Ukraine over the long term in a high and medium intensity conflict,” he insisted.
Don’t repeat the mistakes of 1918
Emmanuel Macron had bristled his peers more than once by suggesting not to “humiliate” Russia and also to grant it “security guarantees” at the end of the war so as not to repeat the mistakes of 1918 which led to the rise of Nazi Germany. He has since readjusted his speech, hammering that peace can only be negotiated on Ukraine’s terms and that it will come through a “defeat” of Russia.
The Head of State also embarked on a long plea in favor of European sovereignty, particularly on the military level, perceived with great circumspection in Eastern Europe. “We must not let Europe be kidnapped a second time”, he launched in reference to the Cold War between Americans and Soviets of which the Old Continent was largely the theater. A “Europe of defence”, a “European pillar within NATO”, is “indispensable in order to be “credible over the long term”, he said, calling on Europeans to acquire a “capacity to deep strike” and to buy European weapons.
The “geography will not change”, it will also be necessary “to coexist in the most peaceful way, without any naivety, with the Russia of tomorrow”, he insisted. Eastern Europeans are viscerally attached to NATO, the only bulwark in their eyes against what they perceive as an existential Russian threat, and take a dim view of the strengthening of European sovereignty advocated by the French president. .