A TV screen photo shows French President Emmanuel Macron delivering a televised speech to the nation at the Elysee Palace after signing the pension reform law in Paris on April 17, 2023.
Ludovic Marin | AFP | Getty Images
French President Emmanuel Macron raised the possibility of sending troops to Ukraine a day before a key summit with Germany, an idea Germany firmly opposes.
“We cannot rule out options,” Macron said in a joint interview with TF1 and France 2 TV on Thursday, when asked to revisit controversial remarks made in late February. At the time, the French leader refused to rule out the deployment of Western troops to Ukrainian territory, drawing scorn from Russia and backlash from Macron’s NATO allies.
“What we are doing is setting red lines for ourselves,” the French president continued in comments translated by CNBC on Thursday, noting that the international community “sets too many limits on the vocabulary” of the war.
“If we decide today to show weakness, if we face a person who has no limits and has exceeded all the limits we have given him, if we naively tell him: ‘I will not go further than this or that.’ In that moment, we decided not to have peace, but to fail.”
The French leader declined to specify how he envisaged deploying troops to Ukraine, instead stressing that “the security of Europe and the security of the French people is at stake here”.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in response to the comments that “France is already involved in the Ukrainian conflict and has no objection to increasing its involvement,” according to Google Translate. According to Russian state news agency TASS.
Macron’s latest statement once again risks putting him at odds with his NATO allies, who in February said they would not consider deploying national military forces in Ukraine.
Alliance members are under individual pressure to increase defense spending to a previously agreed target of 2% of gross domestic product, with two-thirds on target to meet this year. According to the latest forecast.
“We have the ability to meet Ukraine’s needs. Now we need to show the political will to do so,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg stressed at a press conference.
Contributions from NATO members have so far been mainly used to provide ammunition, military equipment and maintenance to Ukraine rather than sending troops to Ukrainian territory – a move that would bring the alliance closer to a war with Russia. Foreign volunteers have so far assisted Russia and Ukraine in the war, but not as part of any formal military deployment.
Macron met with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin on Friday for talks that many hoped would calm simmering tensions over Ukraine. They will also be joined by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk for a rare meeting of the Weimar Triangle – a regional alliance between the three countries, Born in 1991.
Berlin has been trying to shake off its image as a slow response to the conflict in Ukraine after delaying approval of the delivery of its Leopard-2 tanks to Kiev. It now faces similar calls to launch the Taurus missile, which Scholz said would require the involvement of German soldiers to operate it.
In February, Scholz joined NATO leaders in firmly opposing Macron’s position that he might send troops to Ukraine. Stick to social media: “It’s clear: there will be no ground troops from European countries or NATO. This applies.”
Tusk, whose country has staunchly supported Ukraine in the war, pledged “continued support for Ukraine’s self-defense against Russia’s war” in a White House engagement with Polish President Andrzej Duda and US President Joe Biden earlier this week action”. aggression,” According to the reading.
Tusk: “Real solidarity with Ukraine? Less words, more ammunition” said on social media on Friday..
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