The French President believes that Europe should develop its own dialogue with Russia, not delegate this issue to NATO.
French President Emmanuelle Macron considers it a mistake that there is no dialogue between Europe and Russia on arms limitation issues. He said this at a joint press conference with Latvian Prime Minister Krisjanis Karins.
“Disarmament agreements were concluded between the US and Russia, we were not even parties to them, and over the past 15 years these agreements have been broken”, – he said. – “We are no longer protected. This applies in particular to the Treaty on the Elimination of Intermedium and Short Range Missiles, from which the United States has withdrawn. And what in return? Nothing”.
According to him, “it happened because the Europeans did not build a dialogue with Russia on disarmament issues concerning Europe. “This is a mistake,” says Macron.
“We will never resolve the issues of disarmament and protection of European territory without discussing them with Russia”, – Makron said.
Macron believes that Europe itself must develop dialogue with Russia, not delegate this issue to NATO.
“Before we delegated the structuring of our relations with Russia to NATO”, – he said. – “Now we have come to a point where we have to strengthen these relations ourselves,” he said. According to him, “it does not mean renunciation of transatlantic relations, but it will allow Europe to independently advance in relations with Russia.”
Macron also added that strategic exchanges should be established with Russia. “We are not naive, it takes time,” he pointed out, noting that such a dialogue “needs to start now.