President Emmanuel Macron said, on Thursday, February 20, that France was entering a "new era" and that he planned to tell US President Donald Trump he could not "be weak" with Vladimir Putin.
Macron spoke to the French people ahead of a planned visit to the White House to meet Trump next week, as Europe scrambles to respond to his Ukraine war shift. Trump will meet with Macron in Washington on Monday, and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Thursday next week, the White House has said.
"I'm going to tell him: 'You can't be weak with President Putin. That's not who you are, it's not your trademark, it's not in your interest,'" Macron said as he answered questions from the French public on social media.
Macron also said he planned to speak to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky later on Thursday, and supported the embattled leader of war-torn Ukraine after Trump had branded Zelensky a "dictator."
"He is a president elected in a free system," Macron said in a question-and-answer on social media, referring to the Ukrainian president. "This is not the case for Vladimir Putin, who has been killing his opponents and manipulating his elections for a long time."
Trump has sent shock waves around Europe by saying he is ready to resume diplomacy with Putin to end Russia's three-year war against Ukraine, over the heads of European countries and Kyiv.
In recent days French officials have said the French public needed to understand the magnitude of the threat coming from the Kremlin. Macron told reporters earlier this week: "Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans."
On Thursday, the French president said that France needed to beef up security amid the shock policy shift in US-Russia relations. "I am convinced that we are entering a new era. It will impose choices on us," Macron said. "We Europeans must increase our war effort."
Macron stressed he did not plan to send troops to Ukraine "tomorrow" but indicated that France was considering providing security guarantees to Ukraine following a ceasefire deal with Russia. "What we are considering instead is sending forces to guarantee peace once it has been negotiated," he said.