(From Paris)
“Our mood is neither gloomy nor gloomy,” said the French president at the Elysee Palace Emmanuel Macron for one Special Ukraine Summit We invite. Even though the Western mood toward war has recently been less than hopeful, the Paris summit aims to send a “clear message put on“Send: He won't be able to assert himself in Ukraine.” He underlined this at the end of the summit when he announced that he did not want to exclude the deployment of Western soldiers. However, there was no consensus on this at the meeting. There are rumors in France that he wants to distract himself from his own internal political problems.
Heads of government from more than 20 countries were invited to Paris, although some high-ranking representatives from important countries were missing. The Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni stayed away from the summit, sending his deputy foreign minister instead. According to the online magazine Politico, the reason for this is that Macron missed a virtual G-7 meeting that she had organized.
“No success for Moscow”
The US also sent its deputy foreign minister, James O'Brien. Chancellor traveled from Austria Carlos Nehammer at the. He wanted to present “Austria’s position that it also needs a political solution” as a “neutral country”. With “full solidarity with Ukraine” and reaffirming that Russia must not succeed in Ukraine, Nehammer noted that there is also a need to fight for a negotiated solution: “It is important that they talk to the Russians,” said the chancellor. Nehammer called for the BRICS states to be “much more closely involved” so they can exert sufficient pressure on Russia and Putin to end the war of aggression. In addition to Russia, the group of states includes Brazil, India, China and South Africa. After the talks, Nehammer explained that other countries present at the conference supporting Ukraine also shared this position. She mentioned Ireland, Slovenia and Greece.
It must be clear to Putin “that the form of war he has chosen is leading the Russian Federation and himself into a dead end”.
Lack of ammunition
Meanwhile, the situation on the battlefield is coming to a head; In the US, a vote in the House of Representatives on a $60 billion package is still imminent and the outcome is unclear. So far, Washington has supported Kiev with 75 billion – more than any other country.
According to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy, France is in 14th place, behind Switzerland. Parisians like to note that this classification ignores some payments – they supported Kiev with 3.2 billion euros in the first two years of the war. This would place France in tenth place, behind Poland. Last week, Macron promised Kiev an additional three billion euros for this year.
In addition to financial support, Ukraine urgently needs artillery ammunition – and these are scarce in Europe. While European defense companies await long-term guarantees from states, the Czech Republic has located around 800,000 grenades in South Korea and Turkey and is currently looking for partners to finance the grenades. According to Czech information, around 15 countries have expressed interest in this initiative. “I think the action will find broad support this way. I estimate that there will be 15 states”, says Czech Prime Minister, Petr Fiala. The Netherlands wants to contribute 100 million euros to the initiative, as announced by Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte in Paris.
Canada is said to intend to contribute $22 million, but a corresponding deal has so far failed due to Macron's skepticism. He just wants to deliver European artillery shells. However, comparable production capabilities are still a long way off – according to Kiev, Europe has delivered just over 300 thousand of the promised millions of artillery shells.
(courier.at)
| February 26, 2024, 10:50 pm