In an interview with French TV channel TF1 on December 3, French President Emmanuel Macron said that Europe needs to prepare its future security architecture and also think about "how to give guarantees to Russia on the day it returns to the negotiating table." Several European Union countries have officially expressed their displeasure over these words.
This is reported by Reuters with reference to diplomatic sources.
The Czech Republic, which presides over the EU Council, helped European diplomats to organize the demarche. According to Reuters sources, the unofficial document lists aspects of cooperation and dialogue with the Russian Federation on security issues, ranging from the Russia-NATO document of 1997 to proposals from December 2021, which included guarantees that Russia is demanding.
Among the supporters of the demarche were the Baltic states — Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, as well as Poland and Slovakia. The agency was unable to determine how many countries in total supported the move, or whether the Czechs supported it.
The foreign ministries of France, the Czech Republic and Slovakia did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Poland declined to comment.
Speaking to reporters on December 9, a representative of the French president said there was nothing new in Macronʼs comments. He added that the words of the French president correspond to what Ukraine has stated, namely that there will be negotiations after the end of the war.
"In fact, there is a discrepancy between, on the one hand, certain movements or certain people who try to... highlight a fragment of a sentence out of its context, and the real work we do, which is really done without difficulty," the French official said.
- The Office of the President of Ukraine also reacted to Macronʼs words. The adviser to the head of the OP Mykhailo Podolyak said that the withdrawal of troops and the punishment of all those involved in the war with Ukraine can become a guarantee for Russiaʼs security guarantees.
- The President of the United States Joe Biden said that the United States is open to negotiations, but noted that he will talk to Putin only if the Russian Federation shows interest in ending the war. Ukraine declares that negotiations are possible only on the condition that Russia withdraws its troops from all Ukrainian territories, including Crimea.