Foreign policy – Interview given by M. Jean-Noël Barrot, Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs, to France
Q. – Peace through strength?
The minister – Exactly, and next Monday we’ll adopt a new raft of sanctions, the 16th since the war began, to force Vladimir Putin to sit down at the negotiating table. The second message, which is also very important, is that we don’t want a slapdash ceasefire. What we want is a proper peace treaty that definitively ends this war in Ukraine, which has now been dragging on for 11 years. And the third message is that we want to change the European rules so as to be able to increase our defence effort, at a time when the United States is starting to disengage. […]
Q. – So Emmanuel Macron said: “The Europeans must be round the table in the negotiations with Russia”. What did Donald Trump reply?
The minister – You know, when you say the Europeans will be round the table, it’s not a request, it’s a statement of fact. Why? Because the reality is uncompromising. Only the Ukrainians will be able to decide to stop fighting when the time comes. And they won’t do it unless they’re certain that the peace to be reached is sustainable. And how will they be certain? Well, only if they have guarantees that they’ll no longer be attacked. Who will provide those guarantees? It’ll be the Europeans. And so the Europeans will necessarily, at one point or another, be round the table. And if you’re not convinced of that, try and imagine what would happen in France, because Russia currently occupies in Ukraine the equivalent surface area of the Hauts-de-France, Grand Est and Ile-de-France regions in France. Imagine we were in the process of fighting Russia, which was occupying those three regions, and trying to prevent it going further. Do you think we’d lay down our weapons if we were offered a ceasefire with no guarantees? Obviously not. Well, the same goes for the Ukrainians. […]
Q. – We must talk about the guarantees, because yesterday we heard that both the United Kingdom and Sweden are prepared to send troops on the ground to provide Ukraine with security guarantees. Is France as well?
The minister – It’s not a question that arises today, and no one has said they intend to send troops to Ukraine today. What we’re saying is that we want peace and we want it in a sustainable way. Ten years ago virtually to the day, a ceasefire was concluded between Ukraine and Russia. It’s what were called the Minsk agreements. That ceasefire has been violated 20 times since, and at some point it led Russia to say: “All right, I’ll carry out a large-scale invasion of Ukraine.” We don’t want all that. And if we want to prevent the front line getting closer to us, we’ll need a peace treaty which really guarantees that Russia will no longer attack Ukraine. Läs intervjun