The head of state will give a speech earlier in the afternoon at the Globsec forum in Bratislava, in which he will focus on regional security issues.
By Le Figaro with AFP
Published 05/31/2023 at 08:27, updated 05/31/2023 at 08:33
This content is not accessible to all.
Emmanuel Macron in Paris, May 30, 2023, during the third Ministerial Conference of the Platform of Support for Moldova.? POOL / Portal
Unity, support for Ukraine and European sovereignty: Emmanuel Macron will seek to reassure his Eastern European counterparts in Slovakia this Wednesday, who fear concessions will be made to Russia to end the war faster. The head of state is due to deliver a speech earlier in the afternoon at the Globsec forum in Bratislava, in which he will focus on regional security issues – a first for a French president a month ahead of the NATO summit in Vilnius on 11-12. July.
“It is about sending clear signals of our determination to support Ukraine in the long term and also to return to the future of Europe, the European Union and our continent, especially in terms of security,” summarizes the Elysée. “It’s a part of Europe that is obviously under a lot of tension at the moment because of the situation in Ukraine and for which the NATO summit is the immediate strategic horizon,” notes an aide to the French president.
This content is not accessible to all.
NATO leaders in Vilnius must reaffirm their political and military support for Ukraine, which has been plagued for 15 months by a Russian offensive that has also worried countries neighboring the Soviet glacis. “We must remain united (…) There is no room for compromises and gray areas,” Lithuanian President Gitanas Nauseda warned of his French counterpart at the Élysée Palace. Emmanuel Macron has more than once angered his colleagues by suggesting not to “humiliate” Russia and to give it “security guarantees” like Ukraine at the end of the war, so as not to repeat the mistakes of 1918 that led to Russia’s rise Nazi Germany.
“EU Importance”
He has since adjusted his speech, stressing that peace can only be negotiated on Ukraine’s terms and that it can be achieved through a “defeat” by Russia. The French President will remind Bratislava of the Atlantic “strength of the alliance” in the face of the upheavals in the east, but will also “underline the importance of the role of the European Union” in military and civilian aid to Ukraine, according to the Elysée.
” READ ALSO – What Europe after the war in Ukraine?
He will also call for continuing to “arm” Europe in the face of new security challenges, equipping it with an “air defense capability” – which will be the subject of a conference in Paris on June 19 – and addressing the future of NATO-Ukraine relations . Eastern Europeans are firmly attached to NATO, which they see as the only bulwark against what they perceive to be an existential Russian threat, and have a low opinion of the French president’s advocates of strengthening European sovereignty.
You are also committed to Ukraine’s rapid accession to NATO. This perspective, put on the table in 2008, was then held back by France and Germany for fear of an escalation with Russia, which is wary of any challenge to its sphere of influence. The diplomatic initiatives in view of the next NATO summit also raise a number of questions in the East.
security guarantees
France, the United Kingdom, Germany and the United States could then provide security guarantees to Ukraine in the absence of immediate NATO membership to deter a future Russian offensive. According to the American newspaper Wall Street Journal, these guarantees could consist of the delivery of weapons and technologies that could bring Ukraine closer to NATO standards as soon as possible, such as the defense of Israel, which is strongly supported by the United States.
This content is not accessible to all.
” ALSO READ – War in Ukraine: In Estonia, NATO is training to counter an attack on Allied territory
“For example, a pilot training program will allow Ukraine to be integrated into our aviation operations,” notes NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, while the United States has approved a European initiative to train Ukrainians in F-16 aircraft. But in the east, some fear that these guarantees will primarily result in freezing the current frontline and consolidating Russia’s territorial gains without peace.
“A frozen conflict will only give Russia breathing space to prepare for further aggression,” said Slawomir Debski, director of the Polish Institute for International Affairs (PISM). A risk that is also taken very seriously in the West. “Experience has taught us that a frozen conflict will be a war of tomorrow,” admits Emmanuel Macron and pleads not to be satisfied with a ceasefire between Moscow and Kiev.