PARIS, Feb. 27, 2024 (EIRNS)—French President Emmanuel Macron brought 27 heads of state and government or their ministerial representatives to Paris yesterday to participate in a support conference for Ukraine. Macron used the occasion to escalate his attacks and his threats against Russia.
Macron’s bellicose position has been developing in recent weeks, in particular since Donald Trump threatened to cut off U.S. spending for Europe from NATO if the various countries don’t increase their defense spending. At the end of January, during a Jan. 30-31 trip to Sweden, Macron concentrated his remarks on the need for Europe to ensure its own defense, even were the U.S. to decide to not pursue support for Ukraine. The U.S. is our ally, a great ally, Macron stated in Sweden, underlining, however, that one should not forget that Ukraine is part of the European continent. Macron even made a vague threat that the French nuclear deterrent could be used to deter war in Europe.
In the context of yesterday’s event, Macron recklessly escalated further, even stating “that sending troops on the ground cannot be excluded.” In his opening comments, Macron dramatized, saying that since the first day of the war, what is at stake in Ukraine is also capital for our future security in Europe. These last months, said Macron, there has been a hardening of the Russian attitude both domestically—citing the alleged murder of Navalny—and in Ukraine. Russia has also increased its cyber attacks everywhere, he insisted.
Macron stated: “The countries represented here at the Paris conference all said what they are thinking about the present situation, and their collective analysis points to the fact that within a few years, it will be necessary to prepare for the expectation that Russia would attack those 10 countries. That is very lucid and basically the security of us all is at stake.” He added: “We are surely at a moment where an awakening is necessary for us all, given the transformation of the threat from a military and strategic point of view.” Thus, “first of all, Russia cannot and must not win this war in Ukraine, for Ukraine’s sake. Second, we are in the process of ensuring our collective security, now and in the future. Third, we all agree that we do not wish to go to war with the Russian people.”
Macron’s warmongering is the result of a sequence of events which started with Macron’s trip to Sweden on Jan. 30-31, whose objective was to renew the strategic partnership with that country that had just joined NATO. Then, on Feb. 12, Macron organized a revival in Paris of the “Weimar Triangle,” the 1991 strategic alliance among France, Germany, and Poland, where the basic theme was, of course, Ukraine, and the need for a united and strong EU and NATO.
Further, Ukrainian President Zelenskyy took a tour of Europe, starting with Great Britain on Feb. 12, then moving to France and Germany on Feb. 16. During those visits, Ukraine signed a full security treaty with each of the three countries, involving full military, industrial and civil cooperation, to help Ukraine not only against Russian aggression, but also to regain all territory it “lost” to Russia and to reconstruct it. These treaties hold out to Ukraine the long-term cooperation which will in the end, lead it straight to join the EU and NATO, a strategy adopted at the July 11-12, 2023 NATO summit in Vilnius. The French-Ukraine treaty, good for 10 years, calls for full cooperation in defense industries in Ukraine to confront Russia, and, in case of further Russian aggression, military support for Ukraine within 24 hours.
