by Dennis Small (EIRNS) — Mar. 16, 2024
March 16, 2024 (EIRNS)—French President Emmanuel Macron told French TF2 and France 2 television broadcasters on March 14 that “We are doing everything so that it [Ukraine] can put Russia in check because, I will tell you very simply, there is no lasting peace if there is no sovereignty, a return to the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine, including Crimea.” Macron was speaking on the eve of his March 15 meeting in Berlin with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, which was called to discuss the rifts that have surfaced between France and Germany after Macron’s repeated calls to put NATO boots on the ground in Ukraine. In this latest interview, Macron refused to elaborate on what he meant by not ruling out NATO troop presence, stating that he wanted to maintain “strategic ambiguity” and that he has “reasons not to be precise.”
According to accounts in London’s The Guardian and in RT of March 15, Macron used his interview to demand a more aggressive stance against Russia. “We have set too many limits with words,” Macron said. “Two years ago we said we would never send tanks. Then we did. Two years ago we said we would never send medium-range missiles. Then we did.”
Macron went on to describe Russia as France’s “adversary,” but argued that Paris has not been “waging war on Russia” but merely “supporting” Kiev in the conflict. “Certainly, today, Russia is an adversary. The Kremlin regime is an adversary,” Macron stated.
The Kremlin doesn’t see it quite that way, to say the least. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters: “Yes, it’s obvious that Russia is an adversary of France because France is already involved in the war in Ukraine; it is indirectly taking part in this war.” He added that Macron apparently “won’t mind increasing the degree of his involvement” in Russia-Ukraine hostilities.
The Macron-Scholz-Tusk meeting on March 15 was described by The Guardian as “an ostentatious show of unity” between “the newly hawkish French President Emmanuel Macron, and the perennially cautious German Chancellor Olaf Scholz,” at which Poland’s Tusk, “just back from meetings with Joe Biden in Washington, urged all sides to talk less and focus on providing more weapons.” After the meeting, Tusk told the press unconvincingly: “The meeting shows that the malicious rumors about the disagreements between the capitals are not correct.”
Scholz, for his part, stated: “It is also clear that we are not at war with Russia,” but said that “We will use the super profits from Russian assets frozen in Europe to financially support the purchase of weapons for Ukraine. And the three of us will meet again next week and discuss these issues with our European partners in the European Council.”