Will talks between Paris and Moscow resume? In any case, it is the wish of Emmanuel Macron, according to what he says in an interview granted this Saturday from the United States, where he was traveling and broadcast exclusively by the TF1 site. The two leaders have not spoken directly for several months, after several phone calls shortly after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Zaporizhia security in the lead
“I will speak to Putin again,” he said, referring in particular to the issue of the Ukrainian nuclear power plant in Zaporizhia, currently under Russian control.
Emmanuel Macron, however, poses one condition. This exchange will only take place “after (the Head of State) has had the Director General of the (International Atomic Energy) Agency on the issue of civil nuclear energy,” he warns, saying he is concerned about a possible “nuclear escalation civil”.
“We are working together with the International Atomic Energy Agency to protect the Zaporizhia power plant,” the president recalled, while the power plant has been the subject of regular strikes in recent weeks.
The head of state was speaking from US soil, where he already declared on Thursday that he “will continue to speak with President Putin”, particularly in an unalterable desire to “avoid escalations” in the conflict with Ukraine.
New weapons deliveries in preparation
The White House assured for its part on Friday that President Joe Biden “has (had) no intention of exchanging with Vladimir Putin at this time.”
Referring more broadly to the conflict between Russians and Ukrainians, Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed Paris’s support for kyiv and announced the sending of “additional deliveries of arms”. On the other hand, he believes that the question of borders falls on Ukraine.
“It is up to the Ukrainian people to decide for themselves,” he said.
“Do you think that the French, when we had to experience the capture of Alsace and Lorraine, we would have liked, in the middle of the war, for a leader from the rest of the world to tell us, you must do this or that?” drawing a parallel between the situation in Ukraine and that of the French during World War II.
“Help Ukraine to resist”
Emmanuel Macron assured that France and the United States have had “in-depth discussions” about the conflict in Ukraine and that they share the same vision on this issue.
“In the coming weeks we will have to help Ukraine to resist and the Ukrainians to hold on, continue to help militarily, avoid escalation and therefore intervene very precisely to protect the plants,” he requests.
The president also does not close the door to a diplomatic resolution of the conflict and says that he also wants to “prepare the dialogue for the day when everyone sits down at the table again.”
Source: BFM TV
