French President Emmanuel Macron said the West should consider Russia’s request for security guarantees and concerns about NATO’s eastward expansion, confirming a EURACTIV report last month describing the different approaches within NATO on how to deal with Russia, which triggered strong reactions from Moscow.
Macron gave an interview to TF1 and LCI after his four-day state visit to the US, where he discussed the situation in Ukraine with US President Joe Biden.
Macron said he discussed “the security architecture in which we want to live tomorrow” with Biden, mentioning Putin’s fears of an eastward NATO expansion.
“This subject will be part of the factors for peace, and therefore it must also be prepared: what are we ready to do, how we protect our allies and member states while giving guarantees for its own security to Russia the day it returns to the negotiating table?” he added.
According to Macron, both countries are united in their desire to see an end to the conflict.
“I will talk again to President Putin after having had the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency,” he said, adding that the most important thing was “to ensure that there is no escalation on civilian nuclear power”, as fighting around the Zaporizhzhia power plant raises fears of a nuclear disaster.
“We must do everything to put pressure on Russia to return to the negotiating table”, Macron said, adding that, ultimately, it is up to the Ukrainian people to decide the way forward and the agenda.
“The Ukrainian people must decide,” Macron said, drawing a parallel with French history and the occupation of its easternmost provinces after the 1871 war.
“Do you think that when we had to live through the capture of Alsace and Lorraine, we would have liked a world leader to tell us to do this or that? […] It is up to the Ukrainian people to decide for themselves under what conditions, how, when, not to us.”, the French president insisted.
Biden, for his part, said he would only contact his Russian counterpart if he showed a willingness to end the war in Ukraine.
“I’m prepared if he’s willing to talk to find out what he’s willing to do,” Biden said at a White House news conference following talks with Macron. “But I’ll only do it in consultation with my NATO allies. I’m not going to do it on my own,” he added.
Macron’s statement about security guarantees toward Russia confirms a EURACTIV report last month focusing on the balances within NATO.
Source: US 'fortunately' keeps NATO moderate toward Russia
The United States has “fortunately” managed to establish a moderate approach toward Russia within NATO despite calls for the opposite, a NATO source told EURACTIV.
Some NATO members raised their reservations about the “typical” exchanges between Admiral Rob Bauer, NATO’s chair …
Notably, a NATO source insisted that there is a group of eastern Europeans, Scandinavians, the UK, and former Yugoslavian countries backing a zero-sum approach on Russia, while traditional NATO members, such as the US, France, Turkey, Italy, and Greece are said to be more moderate in this regard.
The NATO source emphasised that “fortunately”, Washington has taken the lead within NATO, and therefore a “more moderate” approach has prevailed, while for France, the source said it has come closer to the US position.
The report also suggested that some NATO members raised their reservations about the “typical” exchanges between Admiral Rob Bauer, NATO’s chair of the Military Committee, and his Russian counterpart General Valery Gerasimov over mutual security, who reportedly agreed to “be careful”, especially with ships not navigating in close proximity of each other in the Black Sea to avoid “accidents”.
Russia’s defence ministry reacted to EURACTIV’s article, saying, “Western media speculations about an alleged ‘recent’ conversation between the Chief of the General Staff of Russia’s Armed Forces, General of the Army Valery Gerasimov, and the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee, Rob Bauer, are fakes”.
“There was no such contact, let alone ‘systematic’, with the Chairman of the NATO Military Committee or other representatives of the North Atlantic Alliance within a non-existent Russian-American crisis commission for conflict resolution,” the Defense Ministry said.
It added that the speculations about the conclusion of a certain agreement with Bauer regarding the safe movement of ships in the Black Sea were “fictitious from beginning to end”.
(Charles Szumski | EURACTIV.com – Edited by Sarantis Michalopoulos)
Source: euractiv.com
