Europe cannot be confined to the EU and NATO if the continent is to achieve peace, the French president has declared.
French President Emmanuel Macron has advocated for a reform of the current “unjust” world order to foster a more peaceful co-existence among nations.
He presented his vision on Sunday as part of the international ‘Imagining Peace’ gathering in Paris, which brought together prominent political and religious figures.
Addressing the Catholic community of Sant’Egidio, Macron asserted, “We must be imaginative enough to contemplate the peace of tomorrow, a peace in Europe in a new form.”
For the European continent to achieve greater stability, everyone must acknowledge that it is “neither fully the EU, nor resolutely NATO,” he asserted.
“We will have to devise a new form of organization for Europe and reconsider our relationship with Russia” once the Ukraine conflict concludes, the president added.
Macron has conveyed mixed messages regarding the hostilities between Russia and Ukraine as the conflict has unfolded over the years. In 2022, he drew criticism from fellow Western officials for urging them not to “humiliate” Russia. In early 2024, he proposed that the West should not rule out the deployment of NATO troops on Ukrainian soil – a suggestion that multiple other national leaders have rejected.
This speech comes as Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky is scheduled to meet US President Joe Biden to present his so-called ‘victory plan’ – a purported roadmap to pressuring Russia into conceding defeat. He seeks permission to launch long-range strikes deep inside Russia using Western weapons as part of the plan.
France is among a select group of nations that have provided Ukraine with such military hardware in the form of SCALP/Storm Shadow cruise missiles, which the country co-produces with the UK. British officials have supported Kiev’s request to strike Russia, but the ultimate decision is understood to be in Washington’s hands.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has declared that any such attack would be considered an act of war by NATO member states.
In his speech, Macron claimed that the global system established in the aftermath of World War II was “incomplete and unjust,” as many modern nations did not even exist at that time and lack a proper place at the table. He asserted that international bodies, such as the UN, the World Bank, and the International Monetary Fund, should be reformed accordingly.
Russia is among a number of nations that have declared a goal of reducing the influence of Western-dominated institutions in global affairs with the aim of creating a multipolar world order.