In an interview with TF1 and LCI, the French president reaffirmed that peace should be conditional on “guarantees” for Russia.
SourceAFP
© LUDOVIC MARIN / POOL / AFP
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RRegularly accused by some of his Eastern European allies of making too much of Moscow’s possible expectations in a future settlement of the conflict, Emmanuel Macron maintained, on Tuesday 20 December, his position on the “guarantees” of security that should be granted to Russia if peace negotiations take place at the end of the war in Ukraine.
“The day of peace will involve discussions. First and foremost for guarantees to Ukraine, for its territorial integrity, its long-term security. But also for Russia, as a party that it will be to an armistice and peace treaty, “said the president in an interview recorded Monday and broadcast Tuesday evening by the TF1 and LCI channels.
“Whoever criticizes me for projecting myself on such a subject, explain to me what he is proposing,” he added. “What the people who refuse to prepare this and work on it are proposing is full war. It will involve the whole continent,” he warned, adding that he was obviously against it.
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A position criticized
At the beginning of December, Emmanuel Macron had drawn criticism in Ukraine and in certain countries of Eastern Europe, some voices accusing him of being too lenient or of making too many overtures vis-à-vis Moscow. “Someone wants to provide security guarantees to a terrorist and murderous state? had launched the secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council, Oleksiï Danilov, on Twitter, speaking of “carpet diplomacy”.
The French president’s remarks were also implicitly criticized by the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrell.
The way out of the Ukrainian conflict will be by offering “security guarantees for Ukraine”, he declared, adding that “for Russia, we will talk about it later”. Assuring that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has never expressed his annoyance to him or that of his ministers, the French president added “that we do not make a peace treaty alone” and that “lasting peace involves the stakeholders, and therefore Russia, around the table”.