A rare call, for what result? French presidents Emmanuel Macron and Russian Vladimir Putin spoke on Tuesday, July 1, for “more than two hours”, the first since September 2022.
This exchange was intended to take stock of the situation in Iran, Paris and Moscow being CO -Signs of the 2015 Vienna Agreement on Iranian nuclear, but also made it possible to evoke the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
If the two leaders said they were ready to cooperate to supervise the Iranian nuclear program after Israeli and American attacks, they showed a clear divergence about the conflict released by Vladimir Putin.
“Naisable support from France to Ukraine”
Emmanuel Macron stressed “unwavering France’s support for sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine,” he insisted on Elysée. Again he called “the establishment, as soon as possible, of a high fire”, a proposal approved by kyiv but rejected by Moscow. The head of state has finally encouraged “negotiations between Ukraine and Russia by a solid and lasting agreement of the conflict.”
The Russian president warned that any peace agreement in Ukraine should be “global already long term, predicting the elimination of the deep causes of the Ukrainian crisis and depending on new territorial realities,” according to the Kremlin press release. Vladimir Putin hit that the conflict is, according to him, “a direct consequence of the policy of Western states”, which “ignored Russia’s security interests for years” and created a “head of the Antirusa bridge in Ukraine.”
According to Ulrich Brun, a specialist in Eastern Europe and associated researcher in the group of experts Euro Craiv, kyiv had little to wait for contact resumption between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin, the situation in Iran was what presided over the call.
“Emmanuel Macron had announced that he was going to interact with the permanent members of the United Nations Security Council (France, the United Kingdom, the United States, China and Russia) to talk about Iran,” he said.
“The appeal had become even more appropriate since Iran has just officially suspended its nuclear cooperation with the OIEA, which shows the urgency of trying to have a common diplomatic frontal species to prevent them from leaving the non -proliferation of nuclear weapons (TNP),” continues the specialist.
Negotiations at a dead point against Russian intransigence
For Ulrich Bounat, Ukraine was an essential topic in the conversation, even if there were no progress in peace negotiations. “When you call Vladimir Putin, you can’t avoid the Ukrainian subject. But the positions of the two leaders remain diametrically opposite, even completely irreconcilable,” he said.
Questioned by the AFP, the Russian politician Tatiana Stanovaya, founder of the Consultant Cabinet R. Politik believes that this call “does not mean that Ukraine will lose all support.”
“Rather shows the will of Europeans to have a place at the table” of negotiations, even if there is nothing to discuss’ for the moment due to Russian intransigence, “abounds the specialist.
Despite their very distant positions, the two leaders, who spoke for “more than two hours on the phone”, agreed to continue “to exchange” in the conflict in Ukraine, the Elysée said.
Last call in September 2022
The last call among the French and Russian leaders dates back to September 11, 2022 and had brought to the Ukrainian nuclear energy plant in Zaporijjia, occupied by the Russians and whose security was threatened.
The French president, who was criticized for continuing to talk with the Kremlin teacher for months after the beginning of the Russian offensive in Ukraine in February 2022, then stopped contact, accusing Vladimir Putin of “lying” about his intentions and his will of peace.
If the eyes of the international community have riveted Iran for two weeks, the situation in Ukraine continues to deteriorate. The Russian army intensifies its bombings in Ukraine, causing many civil victims and continues its slow advance in the east of the country.
The United States, which has not established any sanction against Vladimir Putin despite Donald Trump’s threats, also stopped the delivery of certain weapons to Ukraine this week.
Source: BFM TV
