French President Emmanuel Macron appeared to toughen his stance towards Russia on Friday (17 February), urging allies to step up military support for Ukraine and suggesting a forum to deal with Kyiv’s request for fighter jets.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Macron suggested hosting a conference in Paris on Europe’s air defence, and for massive investments in defence to address the challenges facing the continent.

“I hope that with our German, Italian and British partners – and all those who wish to join us in Europe – we will be able to organise a conference in Paris on Europe’s air defence,” he told the audience.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has long urged Western allies to send fighter jets to bolster his country’s defence against Russia’s invasion, with several European leaders indicating they are ready to supply aircraft, though no country has yet publicly committed to providing them.

France is among those countries that have not ruled out providing combat aircraft to Ukraine but stressed the current priority was to help Ukraine in the weeks and months ahead, and fighter jets could not be delivered in that timeframe and it would take time to train Ukrainian pilots to fly them.

Such a move would be one of the biggest shifts yet in Western support and Russia has warned it would escalate and prolong the war.

Macron’s comments came just after President Zelenskyy had addressed the security forum ruling out anything but a Ukrainian victory and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz seemed to dampen Kyiv’s hopes for fighter jets or long-range missiles.

Macron also sought to make it clear that, for now, he would be doubling down on French support for Kyiv.

“We absolutely need to intensify our support and our effort to the resistance of the Ukrainian people and its army and help them to launch a counter-offensive which alone can allow credible negotiations, determined by Ukraine, its authorities and its people,” he said.

“We are ready today to intensify (our efforts) and we are ready for an extended conflict (…) It is the only way to bring Russia back to the table and build a lasting peace,” he added.

If Europe is to be in it for the long haul, Macron said, the EU needs to invest in rearmament, and shift supply chains back to the continent.

He also called for the EU to come up with an “ambitious joint defence investment programme” by the summer so that it could look after its own interests.

“If Europe wants to defend Europe it must arm itself, take advantage of NATO interoperability, but also accelerate its capacity to produce on European soil,” he said.

‘Not the time for dialogue’

Macron’s previously mixed messages, namely the idea the West should consider how to address Moscow’s need for security guarantees to end the war in Ukraine, had drawn sharp criticism from Kyiv and several of the EU’s Russia hardliners.

On Friday, the French president seemed to seek to straighten the perception.

“It is not the time for dialogue because we have a Russia which has chosen war, further intensify this war, and has chosen to go as far as committing war crimes and attacking civilian infrastructures,” Macron said, adding that Moscow’s almost one-year-long invasion of its neighbour “had to fail.”

The long-term question is “how to create an imperfect balance” with Russia, but “right now it’s too early to formulate it,” Macron said.

“No one in this room has an answer to this: There is not complete and long-term peace in our continent as long as the Russian matter goes unresolved,” he added.

The French president, however, also made a number of appeals directed at Western allies and to the developing world to face up to the “new imperialism” of Russia but also to start thinking about new European and global security arrangements for the “post-war” world.

“Nobody in Europe properly digested the end of the Cold War (…) Russia didn’t digest the end of an empire,” Macron said.

He did not repeat his previous statement that the West should “avoid humiliating” Russia, but said any post-war settlement should face addressing Russia’s geographical place in Europe.

“I would like to reassure the president of Moldova of our support once again,” Macron said as he outlined how the European Political Community, considered his brainchild, and which held its first meeting last year, should help rebuild a security architecture in Europe.

[Edited by Benjamin Fox]

Source: Euractiv.com