Macron: Ukrainians will have to hold real negotiations on territorial issues

AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS

French President Emmanuel Macron said today that Ukrainians will have to "hold real negotiations on territorial issues because only they can lead them in order to find a solution to the conflict caused by the Russian invasion in 2022".

"The US should help us change the nature of the situation and convince Russia to sit at the negotiating table", while the Europeans will have to "build security guarantees" for Ukraine, which will be their primary responsibility, Macron said during the annual meeting of French ambassadors to whom he presented the main points of his foreign policy.

Macron assessed that Europe needs to strengthen its defense industry more quickly in the face of growing threats.

“The question is whether Europeans want to produce what they will need for their security in the next 20 years or not, because if we depend on the American industrial and technological defense base, then we will have major dilemmas and strategic dependence,” he said.

Macron also said that Iran represents “a major strategic and security challenge for France, Europeans, the entire region and beyond” and that it will be a priority issue in the dialogue he will lead with the new US administration of Donald Trump.

“The acceleration of Iran’s nuclear program brings us very close to a tipping point,” Macron said.

The French president assessed that the world should view the change of government in Syria “without naivety” and promised not to abandon the Kurdish fighters there, who are allies of the West in the fight against terrorism.

France will support a long-term transition in Syria in favor of “a sovereign, free Syria that respects its ethnic, political and religious plurality.”