Emmanuel Macron recalled that this week, during his visit to the United States, he spent “many hours” talking to US President Joe Biden about the war in Ukraine and its implications “to have a collective mandate” and hinted indicated that he would “discuss again” on Sunday with Rafael Grossi, head of the IAEA.
“On this basis, I will soon be able to have concrete talks with President Putin on the issue of civil nuclear energy,” he added, specifying that he would first speak to President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
The last official meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Vladimir Putin was on September 11th. The French President said last week that he wanted to “make direct contact with the Russian President” on civilian nuclear issues and the Zaporizhia power plant.
“Fear of NATO coming at their doors”
Meanwhile, on Friday, Vladimir Putin called German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who called for the withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine in order to reach a “diplomatic solution”.
We coordinate very closely with Olaf Scholz and I think it’s very good that we’re in regular contact with each other,” emphasized Emmanuel Macron on Saturday on the TF1 channel with Vladimir Putin.
In front of the same microphone, the French head of state explained that he exchanged views notably with President Biden on “the security architecture in which we want to live tomorrow”.