For Macron, “peace is possible” when the Ukrainians “decided”

The French President is one of the many guests at the Interfaith Summit for Peace organized by Sant’Egidio on Sunday and Monday in Rome.

Peace is possible “in Ukraine when the Ukrainians” decide, Emmanuel Macron announced Sunday at the opening of a peace summit in Rome.

“Let’s not let peace today be somehow captured by Russian power, this is not their word, they are doing the opposite. Peace cannot be a consecration of the law of the strongest (…) Peace is possible, and only peace (Ukrainians) will decide when they decide,” he added during Speech delivered at the opening of this summit organized by the Sant’Egidio Community.

Emmanuel Macron also justified Western support for how “so that the Ukrainian people could at some point choose peace”, “on the terms they decided”.

Supposed conversation with Putin

“Peace will be built with the Other, who is today’s enemy, around a table,” he told hundreds of political and religious leaders from around the world gathered for a three-day summit organized by the Italian community of Saints. egidio.

The French head of state arrived in Rome on Sunday afternoon, where he will be received Monday morning by Pope Francis for a private meeting at the Vatican, the third between the two men since Emmanuel Macron was elected in 2017.

Emmanuel Macron has assumed since the start of the Ukraine conflict in February that he will continue to talk to his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, unlike other Western leaders and in particular US President Joe Biden.

And again, Friday in Brussels, he called on Kyiv and Moscow to return “around the table” when it is “acceptable” to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky – but also “as soon as possible”.