Four years after judging that NATO was in a "state of brain death", French President Emmanuel Macron said on Wednesday 31 May – at the Globsec regional security forum in Bratislava – that Russian President Vladimir Putin had "woken up" the Atlantic Alliance "with the worst of electroshocks" by invading Ukraine in February 2022.

A recognition of the leading role played by the United States in military support to Kiev.

At the Bratislava forum, Emmanuel Macron delivered his speech to an audience of Eastern European leaders. The countries of this region are viscerally attached to NATO, the only bulwark in their eyes against what they perceive as an existential Russian threat.

The strengthening of European sovereignty advocated by the French head of state is perceived by the latter as a desire to reduce Washington's weight on the Old Continent.

Despite this reluctance, Emmanuel Macron has once again launched into a plea for European sovereignty, especially on the military level, insisting that it would be part of NATO.

A "Europe of defence", "European pillar within NATO", is "essential" to be "credible in the long term", he said, calling on Europeans to equip themselves with a "strike capability in depth" and to buy European weapons.

"We must not let Europe be kidnapped a second time," he said in reference to the Cold War between the Americans and the Soviets, of which the Old Continent was largely the theater.

The message I came to carry from Bratislava: we will not let Europe be kidnapped a second time. pic.twitter.com/HoHeOQHcVc

— Emmanuel Macron (@EmmanuelMacron) May 31, 2023

"Tangible and credible" guarantees to Ukraine

The French president also called Wednesday for the granting of "tangible and credible" security guarantees to Ukraine pending its accession to NATO.

"If we want (..) If we want to be credible vis-à-vis the Ukrainians, we must give Ukraine the means to prevent any further (Russian) aggression and include it in (a) credible security architecture," the French head of state said. "That is why I am in favour, and this will be the subject of collective discussions in the coming weeks, between now and the Vilnius summit, to give tangible and credible security guarantees to Ukraine," he insisted.

NATO heads of state and government are due to reaffirm their political and military support for Ukraine on 11th and 12th July in Vilnius, which has been in the grip of a Russian offensive for fifteen months which is also worrying neighbouring countries resulting from the Soviet glacis.

These guarantees can be granted by the various NATO member states, pending Ukraine's entry into the Atlantic Alliance, which will remain very distant as long as it is at war with Russia. They can involve the delivery of weapons and technologies as well as the training of military personnel, including fighter pilots, likely to bring it closer to NATO standards as quickly as possible.

"We must build something between the security provided to Israel (by the United States, editor's note) and full membership" to NATO, stressed Emmanuel Macron, judging unlikely a consensus on membership in Vilnius.

No frozen conflict

In the east, there are fears that insufficient engagement by Ukraine's allies could lead to freezing the current front line and consolidating Russia's territorial gains without bringing peace. "A frozen conflict will only give Russia a respite to prepare for another aggression," said Slawomir Debski, director of the Polish Institute of International Affairs (PISM).

Emmanuel Macron, whose diplomatic initiatives since the beginning of the Russian offensive have often left his partners in the East doubtful, if not suspicious, also wanted to be reassuring on this point.

"Peace cannot be a ceasefire that enshrines a state of affairs and amounts to creating a frozen conflict," he said. "We must put ourselves in a position to support Ukraine in the long term in a conflict of high and medium intensity," he said.

The French president had bristled more than once his peers by suggesting not to "humiliate" Russia and also to grant it "security guarantees" at the end of the war so as not to repeat the mistakes of 1918 that led to the advent of Nazi Germany. He has since readjusted his speech, hammering that peace can only be negotiated on Ukraine's terms and that it will go through a "defeat" of Russia.

With AFP

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