French President Emmanuel Macron admitted on Friday that allies are prepared “for a protracted conflict” in Ukraine, urging countries backing Kiev to be “credible” in their efforts and “reinvest massively” in their respective defenses .
“We are prepared for a protracted conflict. Saying this doesn’t mean we want it. But, especially if we don’t want it, we need to be collectively credible in our ability to continue that effort.”added Emmanuel Macron in a speech at the international conference on security that started today in Munich, Germany.
In this sense, the French leader called on European partners to massively reinvest in their defenses to meet the “challenges” facing the continent.
“The first call is a call for massive reinvestment in our defenses if we Europeans want peace”he declared.
Macron also said allies should step up their support for Ukraine to move towards “credible negotiations”, but admitted the time for dialogue has not yet come.
“We must intensify our support and our efforts to help the resistance of the Ukrainian people and army and enable them to carry out the counter-offensive that will in itself enable credible negotiations under the terms chosen by Ukraine, its authorities and the your people”he said.
“Today is very clearly not the time for dialogue,” acknowledged Macron, who has tried to maintain channels of dialogue with Russian President Vladimir Putin, a position that has drawn criticism from some European countries, notably Ukraine.
In the same speech, Emmanuel Macron said he planned to organize a “conference on European air defense” in Paris, bringing together Germany, Italy and the United Kingdom in particular.
This summit “will make it possible to tackle this issue from an industrial perspective, with the participation of all European industrialists who have solutions to offer, but also from a strategic angle and, I might say, in particular from a strategic angle that also addresses the issue of deterrence”said Macron.
The Russian military offensive on Ukrainian territory, launched on February 24 last year, plunged Europe into what is considered the most serious security crisis since World War II (1939-1945).
Several heads of state and government, ministers and leaders of international organizations will be attending the Munich Security Conference in the coming days, an event taking place on the eve of the first anniversary of the war in Ukraine.
A few days before the end of a year since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, conflict will be the dominant theme of the conference, which will run through Sunday.
In addition to Macron, US Vice President Kamala Harris, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, Foreign Affairs Cabinet Director of the Communist Party Commission of China, Wang Yi, and the foreign minister from Ukraine, Dmytro Kuleba, will also be present in Munich.
No Russian representative has been announced at the conference to date.
Source: DN
