Zelensky-Putin meeting: Macron pleads for Geneva
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The meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin should take place in Europe, according to French President Emmanuel Macron. He is calling for it to be held in Geneva.
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In an interview broadcast on the French channel TF1 Info on Tuesday, Macron, when asked whether the meeting announced after the meeting between US President Donald Trump and several European heads of state and government in Washington should take place in Europe, said: “More than a hypothesis, it is even the collective will”.
“It will be a neutral country, so maybe Switzerland, I’m in favour of Geneva, or another country. The last time there were bilateral talks was in Istanbul,” he recalled. On Monday, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggested that the meeting should take place in Rome.
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With regard to the security of Ukraine, the French head of state announced that he would organise a meeting of the “coalition of the willing”, “the 30 countries working on security guarantees to keep them informed of the decisions”, together with the UK on Tuesday lunchtime.
“In the same breath, concrete work will start with the Americans, and so from Tuesday our diplomatic advisers, ministers, chiefs of staff will start work to see who is ready to do what,” Macron said. Ukraine will make the concessions it considers right and good, he added.
“In any case, we should be very careful when we talk about recognising the law. Let’s not allow any recognition of the law, i.e. that countries that are guarantors of the international order can say we can take territories by force, because then we open a Pandora’s box,” he warned.
Translated from French by DeepL/ts
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