When he said he did not rule out sending Western ground forces to Ukraine, Emmanuel Macron did not take his interlocutors by surprise. “They were perfectly aware of what was on the agenda, not sending troops to Ukraine, but tipping the balance of power with Moscow,” French Foreign Minister Stéphane Séjourné said in an interview with Le Monde. “It is necessary that we discuss it among ourselves, even if there is no consensus”, specified the minister, underlining that everyone makes the same analysis of the situation and has the same objective, which is that Russia does not succeed in Ukraine.
“There is no Franco-German conflict, we agree on 80 percent of the issues. There is a willingness to talk,” he added, ahead of Tuesday’s meeting in Paris with Annalena Baerbock. Both France and Germany are among the countries most supportive of Ukraine. But German Chancellor Olaf Scholz continues to rule out sending Taurus missiles to Kiev, while France has already made its Scalps available.
Germany, like other countries, distanced itself from Emmanuel Macron when he said he did not rule out sending Western ground forces to Ukraine. “We must be honest in recognizing that everything that we ruled out sending, we then sent six months later due to the situation,” said Séjourné, specifying that the disagreement on missiles “is not a drama, because the objective remains the same, and that is to support Ukraine.” The owner of the Quai d’Orsay, however, called for greater coherence in the European approach, assuring that there are no French soldiers in Ukraine, but “only support in the form of materials and weapons”.