French President Emmanuel Macron ruled out today that the allies will reach an agreement on Ukraine's entry into NATO at the summit to be held in Vilnius next July. "Let's be frank about it. I do not believe that the Vilnius Summit will reach a consensus among allies on the full integration of Ukraine into the Alliance," Macron said at the global security conference (GLOBSEC) in Bratislava.

For Macron, instead of belonging to NATO, there should be talk of guarantees of solid and global security, "something halfway between the Alliance and what we have given to Israel." He explained that he was not referring to "something like the Budapest package, which clearly has not worked, but to tangible and credible security guarantees in a multilateral framework."

Macron stressed that Ukraine is currently well equipped militarily, although the end of the war does not seem foreseeable. For the French president, what is clear is that, in the event of a ceasefire or a freeze on the conflict, "time will be on Russia's side" and that a territorial concession in exchange for peace "would make us all weaker."

Macron, who said he was as surprised by Ukrainians' fighting ability as he was by Russia's resilience to sanctions, acknowledged that NATO's awakening, which he himself declared brain dead a few years ago, was due to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Asked in question time about the speed with which Putin could be tried for war crimes, Macron replied that it fits its time, and not only because the legal framework must be clarified and all the evidence documented, but because if in the coming months a window opens to the negotiation, an interlocutor is needed and today in Putin.

Macron covered his speech with pro-European impetus. He said a European defense structure is "indispensable" to the bloc's long-term credibility, albeit within NATO. "One thing does not exclude the other, but it is up to us, the Europeans, to have in the future our own ability to defend ourselves," he added.

He therefore called on EU countries to increase their purchases of European defence equipment in order to strengthen the common industry. "When I see some countries increasing their defense spending to buy massively from non-European countries, I tell them, 'Get ready for tomorrow's problems,'" Macron said without mentioning Germany. Germany's decision to buy F-35 stealth jets in the United States had drawn criticism in France. The Bundeswehr wants to use them to replace its aging fleet of Tornados.

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We must take advantage of this moment to produce more in Europe, to discuss joint air defense and nuclear deterrence," Macron said, in line with what he has always defended and never curdled because of the reluctance of his neighbors, including Germany.

Macron has however convened an international conference on the 19th in Paris to address these issues.

'Mea culpa'

Macron took advantage of his time at the forum in Bratislava, with large attendance from the countries of Eastern Europe and the Western Balkans, to launch a 'mea culpa' for the scarce presence of his country in those regions. "Many think that France is arrogant or that it has turned its back on them, but it is not true and there should be no division between Old Europe" and 'New Europe', he said in reference to the division created at the time of the war in Iraq by the United States between the countries that supported the conflict and not.

"Some said the opportunity to remain silent had been lost. I think we too have missed the opportunity to listen to you. This time is over," Macron said to applause from the audience. He was alluding to a comment made in 2003 by then-French President Jacques Chirac, who said that Eastern European nations sided with the United States and Britain in their decision to invade Iraq that year, opposed by some of the main Western allies, including France and Germany. They had missed a "good chance to keep quiet."

The comment shocked Eastern European countries and contributed to a long-standing mistrust among the new EU members that resurfaced at the start of the war in Ukraine, dividing supporters of dialogue with Russia and support for Ukraine's arms defense.

Indeed, after the invasion, eastern EU countries such as Poland criticized Macron for keeping channels of communication open with Putin, or for saying that Russia should not be "humiliated" in the course of international efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine.

Regarding the enlargement of the EU, one of the most recurrent issues in a forum with a strong presence of candidate countries, Macron stressed that the EU must be enlarged and renewed at the same time. "You have to invent several formats and define the purpose of each of them. It is the only means of responding to the legitimate expectations of the Western Balkans, Moldova and Ukraine," he said.

Less ambiguous was it regarding an eventual enlargement of NATO in the Pacific. "NATO is an alliance between North Atlantic countries. My answer to enlargement in Asia is no."

  • Ukraine
  • NATO
  • Russia
  • France
  • Germany
  • United States
  • Iraq
  • Asia
  • Poland
  • Emmanuel Macron
  • Europe
  • Israel

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