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UKRAINE

France’s Macron urges China to “put pressure” on Russia to end war

French President Emmanuel Macron said on Saturday he would visit China in early April, urging Beijing to help "put pressure" on Russia to end the war in Ukraine.

Published: 25 February 2023 12:49 CET
Updated: 25 February 2023 15:29 CET
France's Macron urges China to
French President Emmanuel Macron listens during an online meeting with G7 leaders and Ukraine's President at the Elysee palace in Paris, on February 24, 2023, on the first anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Photo by Christophe PETIT TESSON / POOL / AFP

Speaking a day after Beijing called for urgent peace talks and released a plan to end the year-long conflict, Macron said: “the fact that China is engaging in peace efforts is a good thing”.

On Friday, China released a 12-point position paper on the conflict calling for urgent peace talks and a “political settlement” to the Ukraine crisis. Several Western powers rebuffed the proposals and also warned against Beijing’s close ties to Moscow.

Talking on the sidelines of an agricultural show in Paris, the French leader said peace was only possible if “Russian aggression was halted, troops withdrawn, and the territorial sovereignty of Ukraine and its people was respected”.

Timed to coincide with the first anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the Chinese paper urges all parties to “support Russia and Ukraine in working in the same direction and resuming direct dialogue as quickly as possible”.

It also makes clear its opposition to not only the use of nuclear weapons, but the threat of deploying them, after Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to use Moscow’s atomic arsenal in the conflict.

Macron urged Beijing “not to supply any arms to Russia” and sought Beijing’s help to “exert pressure on Russia to ensure it never uses chemical or nuclear weapons and it stops this aggression prior to negotiations”.

Macron said in an interview last weekend that he wanted Russia to be defeated in its war with Ukraine, but not “crushed”.

“I want Russia to be defeated in Ukraine, and I want Ukraine to be able to defend its position,” he told French newspapers JDD and Le Figaro and broadcaster France Inter.

But he did not, like some, want the fight to be taken on to Russian soil. Such people, he said, “want above all to crush Russia.

“This has never been the position of France and it never will be.”

Lukashenko visit

China has been looking to play a role as mediator in the Russian-Ukrainian war. Beijing announced earlier on Saturday that Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko would visit China from February 28th to March 2nd.

Lukashenko, a close ally of Putin and Belarus, which shares a border with Ukraine and Russia, allowed Moscow to use its territory to launch its invasion of Ukraine.

On Friday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he was planning to meet China’s Xi Jinping and expressed hope that China would support a “just peace”.

Beijing has sought to position itself as a neutral party in the conflict, while maintaining close ties with strategic ally Russia.

On Thursday, China abstained from a UN General Assembly vote demanding that Russia immediately and unconditionally withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

Russia has said it appreciated Beijing’s efforts to settle the conflict but that any solution should recognise Kremlin control over four Ukrainian regions.

On Friday, US President Joe Biden said there was no proof that China had provided weapons to Russia in its war against Ukraine.

READ MORE: Ukraine war turns French port of Rouen into grain powerhouse

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POLITICS

Macron warns ‘mortal’ Europe needs credible defence

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday warned that Europe faced an existential threat from Russian aggression, calling on the continent to adopt a "credible" defence strategy less dependent on the United States.

Published: 25 April 2024 13:41 CEST
Macron warns 'mortal' Europe needs credible defence

He described Russia’s behaviour after its invasion of Ukraine as “uninhibited” and said it was no longer clear where Moscow’s “limits” lay.

Macron also sounded the alarm on what he described as disrespect of global trade rules by both Russia and China, calling on the European Union to revise its trade policy.

“Our Europe, today, is mortal and it can die,” he said.

“It can die and this depends only on our choices,” Macron said, warning that Europe was “not armed against the risks we face” in a world where the “rules of the game have changed”.

“Over the next decade… the risk is immense of (Europe) being weakened or even relegated,” he added, also pointing to the risk of Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon.

Macron returned to the same themes of a speech he gave in September 2017 months after taking office at the same location – the Sorbonne University in Paris – but in a context that seven years on has been turned upside down by Brexit, Covid and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Macron champions the concept of European strategic autonomy in economy and defence, arguing that Europe needs to face crises like Russia’s invasion of Ukraine without relying on the US.

He urged Europe to be more a master of its own destiny, saying in the past it was over-dependent on Russia for energy and Washington for security.

He said the indispensable “sine qua non” for European security was “that Russia does not win the war of aggression in Ukraine”.

“We need to build this strategic concept of a credible European defence for ourselves,” Macron said, adding Europe could not be “a vassal” of the United States.

He said he would ask European partners for proposals in the next months and added that Europe also needed its own capacity in cyberdefence and cybersecurity.

Macron said preference should be given to European suppliers in the purchase of military equipment and backed the idea of a European loan to finance this effort.

Macron also called for a “revision” of EU trade policy to defend European interests, accusing both China and the United States of no longer respecting the rules of global commerce.

“It cannot work if we are the only ones in the world to respect the rules of trade — as they were written up 15 years ago — if the Chinese and the Americans no longer respect them by subsidising critical sectors.”

Macron is, after Brexit and the departure from power of German chancellor Angela Merkel, often seen by commentators as Europe’s number one leader.

But his party is facing embarrassment in June’s European elections, ranking well behind the far-right in opinion polls and even risking coming third behind the Socialists.

The head of the governing party’s list for the elections, the little-known Valerie Hayer, is failing to make an impact, especially in the face of the high-profile 28-year-old Jordan Bardella leading the far right and Raphael Glucksmann emerging as a new star on the left.

Macron made no reference to the elections in his speech, even though analysts say he is clearly seeking to wade into the campaign, with his speech reading as a manifesto for the continent’s future.

“The risk is that Europe will experience a decline and we are already starting to see this despite all our efforts,” he warned.

“We are still too slow and not ambitious enough,” he added, urging a “powerful Europe”, which “is respected”, “ensures its security” and regains “its strategic autonomy”.

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