Macron Says Relaunching Dialogue with Russia Proved Its Effectiveness

Feb. 4, 2020 (EIRNS)—Speaking at a press conference with Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki in Warsaw, French President Emmanuel Macron said relaunching of the dialogue with Russia has proved its effectiveness for Ukrainian reconciliation.

“In the past weeks, the idea to give a new start to the dialogue with Russia demonstrated its efficiency for those who are concerned about the situation and want it to be resolved,” Macron said while on an official visit to Poland on Feb. 3, reported TASS.

“During the past years, there have been no summits [of the Normandy Quartet of Ukraine, Russia, Germany and France] and no progress on ministerial agreements,” Macron said. “But after the relations with Russia had been restarted, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and I managed to achieve a previously unseen progress.”  The Normandy Quartet was able to have its first meeting in Paris in three years on Dec. 9, 2019.

Earlier in joint news conference with Polish President Andrzej Duda Macron urged the necessity for holding arms control talks with Russia and the United States.  “France ... wants to once again assume responsibility within the framework of a concrete dialogue on issues of arms control, especially on [weapons] that can strike Europe,” TASS quoted the French President as saying. “We should reverse the current situation, due to which we find ourselves in the state of international anomie. We need to reinstate reliable rules and procedures, and, being of the parties at the negotiating table, to protect [European Union] countries.”

He accused Moscow of having “failed to observe the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty in past years,” and Washington of simply terminated it without consulting European partners.  “Why should we accept a situation when a treaty on weapons that can strike us is handled by two powers, who either fail to observe it or withdraw from it without consulting us?” Macron demanded to know.

Macron said that his country’s policy was “neither pro-Russian, nor anti-Russian,” but “pro-European.”  “I can see very well that Russia is Europe, although it’s not part of the European Union. But they are our neighbors. We absolutely don’t want a situation in which conflicts or misunderstandings accumulate in our relations with Russia,” he said. “France views security and stability of Europe and European partners as its absolute priority.”