Emmanuel Macron reaffirms that “operations on the ground” may be necessary in Ukraine
French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed, in an interview published Saturday evening by
Le Parisien
, that ground operations in Ukraine by the West would perhaps be necessary “at some point”.
French President Emmanuel Macron in Berlin, March 15, 2024. AP - Ebrahim Noroozi
By: RFI with AFP
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“
Maybe at some point – I don't want it, I won't take the initiative – there will have to be operations on the ground, whatever they may be, to counter the Russian forces
,” he said. the head of state in an interview on Friday, upon his return from Berlin,
where he met
the German and Polish leaders.
“
The strength of France is that we can do it
,” he added.
In the German capital, Emmanuel Macron met with Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, in a show of unity between the three countries.
The repeated declarations of Emmanuel Macron, who refuses to exclude the sending of ground troops to Ukraine, have sowed disorder among Paris's allies, Germany in the lead, and aroused almost unanimous disapproval from oppositions in France.
Different strategic cultures
In his
interview with Le
Parisien
, the president rules out any disagreement within the Franco-German couple on this issue.
“
I wanted to come to Germany very quickly so as not to create a debate on strategic differences that might exist: they do not exist
,” he explains.
“
There has never been any disagreement between the chancellor and me.
We have a very large commonality of views on the objectives and the situation.
It is the way of translating them that is different
,” he continues, highlighting “
the strategic cultures
” of the two countries.
“
Germany has a strategic culture of great caution, of non-intervention, and it keeps its distance from nuclear power
,” he explains.
“
A very different model from that of France, which has nuclear weapons and has kept and strengthened a professional army
,” he said again.
The French president adds that he gave up a trip to Kiev to
go to Berlin on Friday and meet there with Olaf Scholz and Donald Tusk
.
He assured that he would meet President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine before mid-March, a trip which had already been scheduled once for the month of February, then postponed.
He now says his visit will take place in the coming weeks.
He also emphasizes the complementarities of the aid that France and Germany can provide.
“
Germany spends more than France, has more budgetary space, that’s fortunate.
France can do things that Germany cannot
,” he declared to Le
Parisien
, before putting Russia’s power into perspective.
“
We must not let ourselves be intimidated, we do not have a great power facing us.
Russia is a middle power with nuclear weapons, but whose GDP is much lower than that of Europeans, lower than that of Germany, France
,” he said.
Also read: Emmanuel Macron says that sending Western troops to Ukraine in the future cannot “be ruled out”
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