France will take a step forward in terms of support for Ukraine and train thousands of its soldiers to help it battle Russia, President Emmanuel Macron said Thursday.
France aspires to peace, but this must not mean the capitulation of Ukraine, he stressed in an interview with broadcasters TF1 and France 2.
Macron said that France will also deliver Mirage 2000-5 fighter jets to Ukraine to help it defend its airspace and training programs will be planned by the end of 2024.
“We suggest training 4,500 Ukrainian soldiers,” the president announced, noting that this will be in France and not in Ukrainian territory.
He further said that France is not waging war against Russia or its population and is not seeking any escalation.
“Ukrainian territory is sovereign. It is not about going to train (soldiers) in the conflict zone. But when Ukraine has a challenge ahead, we must answer it as we did every time,” he added.
The president also confirmed that a French national working for a Swiss non-governmental organization in Russia was arrested, as announced earlier by Russia. He noted that the worker was not working for France.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy earlier attended a ceremony in northwestern France to commemorate the 80th anniversary of D-Day and the Battle of Normandy.
He will deliver a speech before lawmakers in the lower house of parliament, or the National Assembly, on Friday and meet with Macron as well as US President Joe Biden.
During the international ceremony held earlier Thursday, Macron addressed Zelenskyy directly and vowed continuous support for Kyiv.
– Conflict in Mideast
France will not recognize Palestinian statehood “out of outrage,” the president said, reiterating his country’s support for a cease-fire in Gaza and the two-state solution as well as Israel’s right to self-defense.
“We do not recognize a country as a state out of outrage. We do it in (the framework of) a process,” he stressed, reiterating that recognizing Palestine is not a “taboo.”
It is not “reasonable” right now, Macron said, adding: “The moment will come, and France will do it, but it must be done within a process.”
In this context, the president said that Palestine must first implement some reforms and that the act of recognition must be used to exert pressure on Israel, necessitating the mobilization of countries such as the US.
He confirmed that he will continue to work with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as long as he is in office, describing him as a “fully legitimate interlocutor.”
Civil society organizations and student unions are pressuring European governments to recognize Palestine as a state and protect Palestinians’ rights in the face of constant Israeli attacks on civilians in UN shelters and displaced persons camps.
Spain, Norway and Ireland recognized Palestine on May 28, while Slovenia did so on June 4.
Earlier on Thursday, 26 Belgian civil society organizations sent a letter to Prime Minister Alexander De Croo urging him to “recognize the state of Palestine without delay.”
Israel has continued its brutal offensive on Gaza since an attack last Oct. 7 by the Palestinian group Hamas, despite a UN Security Council resolution demanding an immediate cease-fire
Some 36,600 Palestinians have since been killed in Gaza, most of them women and children, and over 83,000 others injured, according to local health authorities
Eight months into the Israeli war, vast tracts of Gaza lay in ruins amid a crippling blockade of food, clean water, and medicine
Israel stands accused of genocide at the International Court of Justice, whose latest ruling ordered Tel Aviv to immediately halt its operation in the southern city of Rafah, where over a million Palestinians had sought refuge from the war before it was invaded on May 6.
– EU elections
Macron also called on French citizens to go to the polls and cast their votes to elect new members of the European Parliament on Sunday.
The first challenge in these EU elections is the low turnout rates, and the second is the rise of the far right, he said.
“If France sends a very big far-right delegation, if other big countries do the same, Europe can find itself blocked,” he said and explained the risks of having a right-wing parliament during possible crises such as a pandemic.
Voting started as early as June 3 in Estonia. Most countries will be voting on Sunday, June 9.
More than 350 million voters will be heading to the polls across all 27 EU states to elect a total of 720 lawmakers, or MEPs, for a five-year term, who will then choose a European Parliament president, a post currently held by Roberta Metsola.