French President Emmanuel Macron and US President Joe Biden have evoked a hypothetical peace scenario in Ukraine in which both countries and Europe would reaffirm their support for this country in the face of the Russian threat.
As reported by the Élysée, both leaders held a conversation on Tuesday night in which they spoke of this “long-term” peace scenario.
Biden and Macron “have reiterated their determination to provide Ukraine with all the necessary military support for as long as it takes to thwart Russian aggression,” the French Presidency said in a statement. They have also reaffirmed their common objective in the face of “a restoration of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine”.
What the leaders are preparing is not only the day after the war, immediate peace, but also a plan to guarantee stability in the area and to avoid that, even if the war ends on a military level, the conflict remains open and there is a new Russian aggression later, as has happened on other occasions.
This post-war period in Europe is a matter of particular concern to Emmanuel Macron, who has evoked on several occasions the conditions in which this hypothetical peace will be negotiated in order for it to be lasting.
The French president has already discussed this possible post-war scenario with European leaders. He did it at the end of January with the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz, during the Franco-German summit in which both agreed to military support for kyiv for as long as necessary. Macron and Scholz also reaffirmed this support in February, on the occasion of the visit of Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelensky to Paris.
“In the continuity of these discussions” Macron has discussed with Joe Biden the prospects “for this return to peace in the long term” and they have discussed the security guarantees that they can provide to Ukraine in this context to protect it from Moscow.
Emmanuel Macron has been ambiguous in this debate on a few occasions. If he now asks for guarantees for Ukraine, a few months ago he asked for them for Russia when the conflict began. It was last December, when he asked to “offer Russia security guarantees” if he decides to negotiate peace.
These statements angered Kiev, which has criticized the double face that the French leader has shown with Moscow. Earlier, in May, he had already indicated that he wanted the defeat of Russia, but “without humiliating it.” Macron believes that this could be counterproductive and entrench the conflict in the long run.
In fact, Emmanuel Macron is the only European leader who mediated with Vladimir Putin until the war broke out. On the day of Zelenski’s visit, the French president asked to do everything “to reach a defeat for Russia”, but without evoking the day after.
A few weeks ago, the French leader reiterated that he wants kyiv to win, “but without crushing” Moscow. “I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine and I want Ukraine to be able to defend her position, but I am convinced that it will not be finished militarily in the end,” he said.
Zelenski criticized this position of Emmanuel Macron a few weeks ago, who “wasting time trying to dialogue with Russia”, according to what he said in an interview with the Italian newspaper Il Corriere de la Sera.
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