Macron calls for sanctions against Russia if diplomacy fails

WASHINGTON - French President Emmanuel Macron called on Aug 18 for stepping up sanctions against Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.

“US President Donald Trump believes we can get an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace accord,” Mr Macron told reporters after talks at the White House.

“But if, at the end, this process is met by refusal, we are also ready to say that we need to increase sanctions.”

He pointed to

recent secondary sanctions

imposed by the Trump administration on India, which has emerged as a major buyer of Russian energy as Western nations cut back due to sanctions following Mr Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

The secondary sanctions on India have “had a lot of effects”, Mr Macron said.

Mr Trump invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House three days after the

US President welcomed Mr Putin for talks in Alaska

.

Over the weekend, Mr Trump again publicly pressured Ukraine to concede territory, siding with Mr Putin and not Mr Zelensky, who has insisted on defending all territory that Russia has taken by force.

Asked by reporters if Mr Trump had said that concessions were necessary before any US security guarantees to Ukraine, Mr Macron said: “No, that wasn’t discussed at all. We’re well away from that.”

He said that Mr Trump and the European leaders also agreed that there can be no restrictions on the size of Ukraine’s military in a future deal with Russia.

All the leaders meeting in Washington support a “robust Ukrainian army that can resist any attempted attack”.

Mr Macron said he hoped Russia and Ukraine would resume contact “in the coming days” with a potential three-way summit involving Mr Trump, Mr Putin and Mr Zelensky “in two or three weeks”.

However, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, who was also at the White House with Mr Trump, Mr Macron and other European leaders, said Mr Putin was not trustworthy.

“Putin is rarely to be trusted. So now it remains to be seen whether he has the courage to come to this type of meeting. Does he have the courage to come to a trilateral meeting, or is he once again playing for time?” he said. AFP