Macron says Paris to hold another Ukraine summit next week

ISTANBUL

The French president announced that a summit on Ukraine will be held in Paris next week.

“Next Thursday, we will hold a summit of the coalition of the willing in Paris, in the presence of President Zelenskyy. We will finalize our work on short-term support for the Ukrainian army,” Emmanuel Macron said, following the first day of the European Council summit in Brussels.

Macron reiterated their focus on Ukraine's defense strategy and European security guarantees and reaffirmed that only when Russia and Ukraine commit to a lasting ceasefire, they would discuss security guarantees.

“It is legitimate for Ukraine, as a sovereign nation, to define what it needs to ensure its security. We will proceed in an orderly manner and will not accommodate excessive demands or provocations,” he underscored.

Macron also said that Europe “operationalized” its defense decisions with the strategy of rearming itself.

“We now have a strategy to fully rearm Europe—that is, to re-equip ourselves and fully regain our independence within the next five years. We must rearm ourselves, become more independent, protect our borders, and safeguard our neighborhood,” he added.

Macron announced that they also discussed the preparation of the next budget to meet challenges in defense, artificial intelligence, technology, and climate transition.

“We are at the end of a period when we benefited from the 'peace dividend' when we could afford to neglect defense investments, assuming that trade would resolve global conflicts,” he said, underlining that all certainties Europe once lived by had been shaken.

“Europe is being fundamentally challenged,” he added.

Macron further announced that he would travel to Egypt on April 7 and 8 and host Lebanese President Joseph Aoun in Paris in a few days.

He also said they had also discussed Syria during the summit, emphasizing the need to restore calm and combat terrorism, and added that he would follow up in the coming days by calling the Syrian President Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa.