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French president Emmanuel Macron has started talks with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Moscow in an effort to “de-escalate” the Ukraine crisis and prevent the massing of Russian troops on Ukraine’s borders from turning into an all-out war in eastern Europe.
Macron came to Moscow with a specific set of ideas, the Kremlin said ahead of the talks, which are aimed at easing tensions along Ukraine’s border, where Russia has built up well over 100,000 troops. Additional Russian forces are due to start military exercises in Belarus this week.
Facing Mr Putin during opening remarks across a long oval table, Mr Macron said he sought to find “a collectively useful answer for Russia and for all of Europe”– one that would prevent war and build stability and trust.
“Today’s conversation can set us on the path that we need to take, which is de-escalation,” Mr Macron said.
Mr Putin responded by describing the issue of European security as one that mattered to both Russia and France. “I wanted to stress that I understand that we share common concerns about security in Europe and I want to thank you for the fact that France has always been very active in developing fundamental decisions in this area,” he told Mr Macron.
“We know – and Macron himself has said this to Putin – that he has specific ideas for ways to defuse the tensions in Europe, and he plans to share these ideas with Putin,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on a call with reporters ahead of the talks.
On a visit to Washington, Josep Borrell, the EU’s top foreign policy official, warned that the Ukraine crisis represented “the most dangerous moment for European security since the end of the cold war”.
He was speaking after meeting US secretary of state Antony Blinken, who dismissed criticism that the US was too aggressive in releasing intelligence about Russia’s intentions with regards to Ukraine. “This is not alarmism. This is simply the facts. We have to deal with the facts,” he said.
Russian concerns
Mr Macron’s advisers say his approach is to persevere with “Normandy format” talks between Russia, Ukraine, France and Germany over the Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine, to try to persuade Moscow to pull back its forces and tone down its efforts to destabilise Ukraine, and finally to forge a new long-term security arrangement for Europe.
The Moscow meeting could be pivotal. France’s president, who has spoken to Mr Putin by phone three times in the past 10 days, has signalled that he would recognise Russian security concerns without abandoning support for Ukraine’s sovereignty.
But although the Kremlin said it expected talks to be long and substantive, it also warned against expecting a watershed moment. “The situation is too complex to expect some sort of breakthrough during just one meeting,” Mr Peskov said.
The subject of tensions in Europe – as well as Russia’s demand for security guarantees from the west, which include a rollback of Nato’s eastward enlargement – would naturally “absolutely dominate” the discussion, Mr Peskov said. Western allies have said they cannot accept Moscow’s demands that Nato troop numbers be cut and that Ukraine must never join the alliance.
Mr Macron is acting as the emissary of the West in seeking a Russian “de-escalation” of the crisis not only because France currently holds the rotating presidency of the 27-nation EU but also because he has maintained constant contact with Mr Putin since he was elected French president five years ago.
He has emphasised that he is co-ordinating closely with European and Nato allies in his latest approach to Mr Putin. He talked to US president Joe Biden for 40 minutes on Sunday to discuss what the White House called “diplomatic and deterrence efforts” in the crisis.
Mr Macron has taken a carefully balanced position, recognising that Russia has security concerns that must be addressed while insisting that the sovereignty and security of Ukraine and other European countries cannot be compromised.
“We have to be very realistic,” Mr Macron said in an interview with Le Journal du Dimanche before leaving for Moscow. “We will not obtain unilateral gestures, but it’s essential to stop the situation deteriorating.”
Mr Biden hosted Olaf Scholz, Germany’s chancellor, on Monday. At the start of their Oval Office meeting, Mr Biden called Germany “one of America’s closest allies”, and said they were working in “lockstep” to counter Russian aggression.
Mr Scholz said he would talk to the US president about “fighting against Russian aggression against Ukraine” among other issues. – Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2022