Read the full transcript of a joint press conference held by President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron at White House on the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Feb 24, 2025.
Listen to the audio version here:
TRANSCRIPT:
Opening Remarks
DONALD TRUMP: I’m delighted to welcome President Macron back to the White House. We’ve been together quite often, but not that often in the White House. We honored the President, First Lady of France, not so long ago. It was a beautiful evening, and we will not soon forget it. It was a beautiful day and evening and many fond memories.
I also want to thank Emmanuel for hosting me in Paris last December after a historic election win to witness the reopening of the spectacular Notre-Dame Cathedral, where you did an outstanding job in bringing it back together. That was a sad day watching that burn. And five years later, you had it up, and it was, they say, more beautiful than it was before. So I think that’s a great achievement.
That was not easy. France is America’s oldest ally. Our cherished partnership has been a force for freedom, prosperity, and peace from the very beginning. We’re now working on some very interesting developments, one in particular, as you know, the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Historical Alliance and Current Challenges
In the American Revolution, French support helped us to seize our destiny as an independent nation. In the First and Second World Wars, our citizens shed blood together on the battlefields of Europe. And I’ll never forget joining President Macron six years ago on the 75th anniversary of D-Day. That was some day.
The purpose of our meeting today is to end another battle, a really horrible one, a war, something that we haven’t seen since the Second World War, that is ravaging European soil, the deadliest and most destructive conflict that one can imagine.
I’ve seen the pictures. I’ve seen the satellite photos and lots of other photos, and it’s a horrible thing that’s happening. Thousands of people are dying a week. This very day is the third anniversary of the invasion of Ukraine, which would never have happened if I was President. That was not going to happen.
The horrors of this gruesome and bloody war can scarcely be overestimated. Hundreds of thousands of people, Russians and Ukrainians in particular, have needlessly died. An entire generation of Ukrainians and Russian men has been decimated. One thousand-year-old cities have been turned into rubble.
Those beautiful spires that you used to see there, they were most beautiful in the world, they say, are lying in heaps of rubble, blasted to smithereens. It’s time to end this bloodletting and restore peace, and I think we’re going to do it.
Diplomatic Efforts and Progress
We’ve had some great conversations, including with Russia. Since my return to the White House, we’ve made more progress toward that goal in one month than occurred in the past. White House, we’ve made more progress toward that goal in one month than occurred in the past three years. And I’ve spoken with both President Putin and President Zelensky, and again, a lot of good things toward peace are happening, moving it, I think, pretty quickly.
Last week, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Michael Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff conducted successful talks in Saudi Arabia with the delegation from Russia. And I’d like to thank the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia and the King… Mohammed. Great people. They’re really working hard to get this done.
Our focus is on achieving a ceasefire as soon as possible and ultimately a permanent peace. My meeting with President Macron today was another important step forward in that sphere because he’s been very much involved right from the beginning in trying to get it over with, and we’re going to get it done.
Strategic Considerations and Peace Efforts
I believe that Emmanuel agrees with me on many of the most important issues, chief among them is this is the right time. It may be the only time. You know, that’s a very interesting and horrible situation, and that could evolve into a third world war. We’re not going to let that happen. It should have never started, but it did. And what a mess, what a horrible, bloody mess.
I’m also pleased that President Macron agrees that the cost and burden of securing the peace must be borne by the nations of Europe, not alone by the United States. And Europe must take that central role in assuring long-term security of Ukraine, which they want to do.
And that’s not a very big step. The big step is what’s going to happen over the next few weeks. The United States has put up far more aid for Ukraine than any other nation, hundreds of billions of dollars. We’ve spent more than 300 billion, and Europe has spent about 100 — 100 billion. That’s a big difference. And at some point we should equalize. But hopefully we won’t have to worry about that.
We have other things happening that maybe take that out of the realm of necessity. And while we’ve given vast amounts of military aid and money in form of grants, much of Europe’s contribution has been economic relief structured as loans, for which they’ll be repaid. Like the Europeans, I believe that taxpayers in the United States also deserve to recoup the colossal amounts of money that we’ve sent. The previous administration never even thought of that. They didn’t think of a lot of things like, why did they let us start in the first place?
Diplomatic Vision and Future Outlook
That is why we must have an agreement with Ukraine on critical minerals and rare earths and various other things as security. And I think that that’s happening. I think we’ve made a lot of progress. I had a report just given to me before walking in that we’ve made, Emmanuel, a great deal of progress toward getting that.
I’ve been elected by the American people to restore common sense to Washington and indeed to the world. And I believe strongly that it’s in the best interest of the United States, the best interest in Europe, the best interest of Ukraine, and indeed the best interest of Russia to stop the killing now and bring the world to peace.
My administration is making a decisive break with the foreign policy values of the past administration and, frankly, the past. I ran against a very foolish foreign policy establishment, and their recklessness has led to the death of many, many people.
Under our administration, we’re forging a new path that promotes peace around the world.
When I left office for the first administration, first term, we had no wars, we had no problems. We didn’t have October 7th with Israel. We didn’t have Russia and Ukraine going at it. We didn’t have the problems in other parts of the Middle East. We didn’t have inflation.
It was a whole different world. You know what else? We didn’t have millions of people pouring through our borders, many of them criminals released from other nations and put right into our land, murderers and drug dealers, gangs. We didn’t have any of that. It’s a different time, but now we have it and we’re fixing it. We’ll fix it all up. We’ll get it done as quickly as possible. And we’ve made a great deal of progress. People are saying it was the best month for a president in our country’s history. I hope that’s right, but I feel it’s right. We’ve done a lot of things in a very short period of time, four weeks.
As I’ve said before, it’s my hope that my greatest legacy, however, will be as a peacemaker and a unifier. I want to bring peace, not war. I thank President Macron for joining us today in this urgent work we’re doing. We have some wonderful people up front right here that have worked so hard. Steve Witkoff, thank you very much. Michael Walz, thank you. Scott, thank you very much. And J.D., thank you. They’ve really done a job. They worked very hard. It’s like it’s a real passion to get this war ended. And I’d like to now invite Emmanuel to say a few words, and then we’ll take questions. And again, Emmanuel, it’s a great honor to have you with us at the White House.
EMMANUEL MACRON: Thank you. Thank you, Mr. President. Thank you, dear Donald. Ministers, ladies and gentlemen, mesdames et messieurs, je vais dire quelques mots en français. Ladies and gentlemen, I’ll be saying a few words in French.
Macron’s Remarks
EMMANUEL MACRON: Thank you very much, Mr. President, dear Donald, for your hospitality and for this visit. As you mentioned, we have had the opportunity to meet over the past few years. Since your first term, we’ve been able to discuss matters in Paris and also here at the White House. And it has always been a great joy to do that, and I would like to commend you.
And thank you, Mr. President, for extending this friendship to France and taking part in the ceremony at Notre Dame that you mentioned before. It was a great honor for the French people to reopen the cathedral to the rest of the world, and your presence was a testament to that friendship.
As the President said, this friendship dates back to the Revolutionary War, since the beginning of the United States. And whenever we’ve needed to, we’ve been able to come together and be on the right side. We’ve been able to be united to defend peace and sovereignty, namely in the two world wars that marked the 20th century, from Lafayette to Pershing and to the many Americans who landed on Omaha Beach. And we spoke earlier before, and you mentioned that one of those gentlemen was able to visit you here, one of the veterans.
This is part of history, which puts us in the world that we are in today. And as the President just said, there are many challenges in this world. And over the past few days, we have one main objective, which is the geopolitical situation. Mr. President, I really wish to thank you for making changes to your schedule to meet with us so quickly. I think we’ve made very substantive steps forward during our discussions, and this is a major step in what we’re experiencing today.
We had a videoconference with all of the G7 leaders, which was an opportunity for us to discuss this matter three days after the Russian war in Ukraine and to express our support for President Zelensky to the Ukrainian people, but also to speak and share about our desire for a lasting peace.
This is what we have spoken about very forcibly over the past few weeks. We thought that this war was only going to last a few weeks, and it broke out in 2022. We admire greatly the courage of the Ukrainian people. And Mr. President, I wish to thank you for this. You mentioned that there are responsibilities on Europe’s side, and indeed, we have invested $128 billion in aid to Ukraine and the Ukrainians.
Ukraine has been able to hold the front of our collective security. It’s fought over these past few years for its independence and for its sovereignty, but also for our collective security, because I think that no one in this room wants to live in a world where it’s the law of the strongest and international borders can be violated from one day to the next by anyone.
Peace Negotiations and Commitments
Over the past few hours, and as you mentioned this, Mr. President, we’ve been able to see a few things take shape. First of all, allow me to commend you on your decision to work with President Zelensky and to conclude this agreement that’s so important for the U.S. and Ukraine on rare earths, critical minerals, but also having substantive conversations with President Zelensky during this key phase of achieving this deal, which is a major commitment to Ukraine’s sovereignty, and I think that’s very commendable.
We also have a shared desire to build peace. We will have this responsibility. This is 10 years after the war started in Crimea, and then we saw the events in the Donbas region and along the northern part of the country. We want to save lives. We want to bring prisoners back and bring back families and children because there’s also a humanitarian tragedy affecting the Ukrainian people.
We had lengthy discussions with the President, and we spoke about our desire to bring an end to conflicts, to have a truce that is measurable, verifiable, and that enables negotiation of a lasting peace. We discussed not only Ukraine’s reconstruction, its territories, but also the security guarantees, meaning maintaining peace over the long term.
As I said to the President, we’ve experienced peace accords that were only peace fires without ensuring security guarantees, Minsk I and II, and we want to make sure this doesn’t happen again, and I know that the President has expressed the desire to be a player for peace in the region. I’ve spoken with some 30 European leaders and allies in recent days. We want to bring together these allies and share the same vision.
This peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine. It must not mean a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace must allow for Ukrainian sovereignty and allow Ukraine to negotiate with other stakeholders regarding the issues it affects.
It is also a country in which we need to shoulder our responsibilities so that we ensure security and stability for Ukraine and for the entire region and for us Europeans. This is an existential issue. We also spoke about these issues at length with the President. We’ve worked with President Zelensky and gotten to some of the details of the various phases of the negotiations, and we’ve also been able to speak about some of this work with our British partners to talk about deployments of peace forces on Ukrainian soil, which are part of the security guarantees.
Other countries are ready to join in this effort. Solidarity and support from the U.S. will be crucial to this, and I thank you, Mr. President, for beginning to work with us on this issue and the agreement that you are preparing to sign with Ukraine and with all the discussions we’ve had are very solid guarantees that we have the same wish, peace as soon as possible, lasting, solid peace for everyone, and the renewal of an international situation where we are all able to shoulder our responsibilities, Europeans shouldering their responsibilities alongside their American allies who will shoulder their own responsibilities.
I also wanted to be very clear, Mr. President, about Europe’s commitment.
European Commitment and Security
EMMANUEL MACRON: We have committed to building a lasting peace. As Europeans, we have committed to being stakeholders in these security guarantees, and we are also well aware that Europeans need to do more for security in Europe, for defense in Europe, and to more fairly share the security burden that your country has been carrying for so many years.
Mr. President, you know how much friendship I show towards you and I have towards you since your first term. Europe is very clear-eyed about this. We know what we need to do as Europeans, given the threats surrounding us and the responsibilities that we must shoulder.
Economic Cooperation and Trade
We spoke about the Versailles Agenda, which allowed the Europeans to take a historic step and increase their investments. Europeans are ready to do even more and to go even farther, and several leaders said that to me before I came here to meet you. Mr. President, dear Donald, you spoke about this peace through strength. We fully share that because we must recognize the sacrifices made by the Ukrainian people and what we owe to them.
The President and I also spoke about economic matters and our desire to see more prosperity in the United States and in Europe. We had discussions, which will be carried on by our teams, our ministers and secretaries to flesh out some of those ideas, but the idea is to have fair competition and no bias within competition between our industries.
Now, the American and European economies are extremely intertwined. Some 1.5 billion in trade, a trillion rather, in goods and services, and I know you’ve spoken about wanting to look at the balance of payments. We also have a trade deficit, and I know that we need to look not only at goods, but also digital items and goods which you export, and we want to make a sincere commitment towards fair competition where we have smooth trade and more investments.
You already invest a great deal in France, and France is the fifth largest investor in the United States, and I would like to recognize here all of the American investors who announced investments, some $120 billion that were announced at the AI Summit. This is our wish. We want to have more prosperity on both sides of the Atlantic.
Middle East and Security Concerns
We have a shared agenda in that regard. We also spoke about the Middle East among other subjects, and here again we have the same desire. We don’t want to see Iran obtain nuclear weapons. We don’t want, or rather we want an approach with partners in the region that we can trust. Given Iran’s nuclear activities, we want to limit its ballistic capabilities and avoid any type of regional destabilization.
With respect to Syria and Iraq, we also share the same desire. We don’t want to see Islamic terrorist groups resume any of their activities because for some time our armies have very bravely been engaged in the Gulf, as you have led, and contributions have been significant and helped stability in the region.
France was affected by a terrorist attack in 2015 which was linked to the terrorist activity in Syria, and we are in that region at your side to work for more security.
Closing Remarks
Ladies and gentlemen, we had extremely productive discussions this morning during the conference, and we spoke with our ministers and counsellors and advisers. And I wish to say, after speaking with President Trump, I fully believe that there is a path forward. We share the same beliefs. We know what work needs to be done in the weeks to come. We will work on that. Our teams will come together in various formats to make sure that we have this solid, lasting peace with great strength.
Mr. President, thank you so much for welcoming me here today. Thank you so much for these productive discussions and for your commitment. Thank you, dear Donald.
Press Questions
DONALD TRUMP: Thank you very much. Brian, would you like to ask a question? Go ahead.
REPORTER: Mr. President, welcome. President Trump, I just want to touch upon more quickly the Harvard poll that came out that had you up nine plus points. And all of your agenda that you ran on, you’re accomplishing that. You’ve got the support of the American people, including stopping the war in Ukraine. If you can comment on the latest Harvard poll, I’d appreciate that.
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I was honored by it. It was a big poll, and it’s usually a poll that leans on the other side of things, the other side of the world, so to speak. But the Harvard poll is a respected poll, and it has us not only leading, but leading by a lot and leading on every single issue that we’ve talked about.
And as I said, we’ve become the party of common sense. And I think that’s a very important element now, common sense, because what’s happening in the world and even in this country, some of the things that took place, many of them are now canceled, and the rest are being canceled as we speak. But we’ve moved very rapidly and, I think, very effectively.
So I was honored by that poll. Thank you very much. Appreciate it.
REPORTER: Mr. President.
DONALD TRUMP: Go ahead. Please, go ahead.
REPORTER: Mr. President, you said before that you would like to see a Russia-
DONALD TRUMP: Yes. Go ahead.
REPORTER: Are there any conditions that you want to meet with President Putin and to meet in Saudi Arabia when you meet in Saudi Arabia with President Putin? Will that happen regardless of any progress on the Ukrainian side?
DONALD TRUMP: Yeah, I think the meeting in Saudi Arabia was a fantastic one. We met with the crown prince. It was just a fantastic young guy. He’s young, but with great imagination and tremendously respected all over the world. And he goes right to the king, and the king is incredible. He’s gotten to be friends with both of them very much. And they want to see this ended, and they’re going all out to make sure that it is ended.
I think Russia, likewise. I’ve spoken to President Putin, and my people are dealing with him constantly, and his people in particular. And they want to do something. I mean, that’s what I do. I do deals. My whole life is deals. That’s all I know is deals. And I know when somebody wants to make it, and when somebody doesn’t.
I will say this before I came here, there was no communication with Russia whatsoever. And Russia wasn’t answering calls. They were not talking to anybody. They wouldn’t talk to anybody. And people sort of accepted that as being that they want to go forward and just keep going without stop. But when I got here, one of the first calls I made was to President Putin.
And we were treated with great respect. And they want to end this war. So that’s a big thing. Because I didn’t know if I could say that, but it’s a big thing. They want to do it.
And the group in the front row that I introduced, they’re all very active in it. And we’re working on deals right now, transactions right now. And in particular, the big one is to get the war stopped, whether it’s ceasefire or direct to an agreement. I’d like to go directly to an agreement, but ceasefire will always happen a little bit quicker. And every day, you’re saving thousands or at least hundreds, but thousands in some cases lives. So we want to see if we can get that done very quickly.
Yes, for the president, please.
REPORTER: Thank you. I’m a correspondent based in Paris. Question for both of you, actually. Mr. Macron, you were one of the last Western leaders to speak to Putin before Ukraine’s invasion. What advice, what recommendation could you make to President Trump to make sure that this time you can get strong enough guarantees from Putin to get a peace deal that lasts this time? And Mr. President Trump, what makes you think you can trust Putin in those negotiations?
EMMANUEL MACRON: Look, I will never give any advice to President Trump. We have friendly and trustful discussion. But my experience with President Putin is the following:
Number one, I always think it’s good to have discussion with other leaders, and especially when you disagree. I stopped my discussion with President Putin after Bucha and the war crimes because I considered that, I mean, we had nothing to get from him at the time. Now this is a chance. There is a big change because there is a new US administration. So this is a new context. So there is a good reason for President Trump to re-engage with President Putin.
But my experience is the following, and I shared it with President Trump and the team. In 2014, our predecessors negotiated peace with President Putin. But because of the lack of guarantees, and especially security guarantees, President Putin violated this peace.
I had several discussions, especially at the beginning of 2022, several times, seven hours with President Putin, 15 days before the launching of the attack. He denied everything, but we didn’t have security guarantees. So this is why being strong and having deterrence capacities is the only way to be sure it will be respected.
And I insisted on that, and this is why I believe that the US has the capacity to do so. And this is why I think we should never say, I will never send an inbuilt on the ground because you give a blank check to violate any type of commitment. So I think it’s good to have discussion.
I think it’s useful to have negotiation. I think it’s super important to go to the peace. But my strong point was to say, let’s try to get something first which can be assessed, checked and verified. And let’s be sure that we build sufficient guarantees in the short run. And this is where we are ready to be engaged. As for France, a lot of my European colleagues are ready to be engaged. But we do need this American backup because this is part of the credibility of the security guarantees.
And this is our collective deterrence capacity. And I have the feeling that the president has this capacity.
DONALD TRUMP: I think it’s very much to the benefit of Russia to make a deal. And I feel that we will do that. It is what it is. Again, it’s a war that should have never been started. It’s a war that would not have been started if I were president. But it did start.
And it’s at a terrible level where cities are burned down and shot down to the ground. It looks like demolition sites, a whole big pile of demolition sites. And we got to get it stopped. Too many people, too much agony. The whole culture is destroyed when you rip down some of those ancient, really ancient or near ancient buildings. It’s so sad to see. But I think it’s very much to the benefit of this tremendous distrust on both sides.
That’s why it’s good that I’m coming in now. But I think it’s to the very much benefit of Russia to make a deal and to go on with go on with leading Russia in a very positive way. That’s — that’s what you have to do. But I really believe that he wants to make a deal. Maybe wrong, but I believe he wants to make a deal.
Tariffs and Border Issues
REPORTER: Next week, there’s a key deadline for your Canada and Mexico tariffs. Do you expect those to leave? Do you believe those countries have done enough on the border to stop those from taking effect?
And for President Macron, I’m wondering if you believe that this critical minerals deal with Ukraine represents a de facto security guarantee by the United States since the U.S. would have an interest in protecting those reserves in Ukraine. Thank you.
DONALD TRUMP: We’re on time with the tariffs, and it seems like that’s moving along very rapidly. We’ve been mistreated very badly by many countries, not just Canada and Mexico. We’ve been taken advantage of. We were led by, in some cases, fools, because anybody that would sign documents like they signed where they were able to take advantage of the American people, like has happened over the last long period of time, except for a little four year period that took place four years ago.
But anybody that would agree to allow this to happen to our country should be ashamed of themselves. No, the tariffs are going forward on time, on schedule. This is an abuse that took place for many, many years. And I’m not even blaming the other countries that did this. I blame our leadership for allowing it to happen. I mean, you know, who can blame them if they made these great deals with the United States, took advantage of the United States on manufacturing, on just about everything, every aspect that you could imagine they took advantage of. I look at some of these agreements, I’d read them at night and I’d say, who would ever sign a thing like this?
So the tariffs will go forward, yes, and we’re going to make up a lot of territory. All we want is reciprocal. We want reciprocity. We want to have the same. So if somebody charges us, we charge them. It’s very simple, but it’ll be very good for our country. Our country will be extremely liquid and rich again.
Waste, Fraud, and Abuse
Plus, we’re doing other things. As you know, we’re finding tremendous waste, fraud and abuse at levels that nobody thought possible. You see what’s going on. And that was also part of the Harvard poll. Do you agree with what President Trump is doing with Elon and others that are looking for the waste, fraud and abuse?
And the numbers were staggering. It was like 70 percent to 2 percent. Everybody wants to find out. They don’t like it. And, you know, the radical left or whoever it may be starts screaming about the Constitution. But it has nothing to do with the Constitution. It has to do with fairness to this country. It has to do with being ripped off.
And when you read the things that all of these billions, and I mean many billions, hundreds of billions of dollars have been spent on, that’s all you have to do is stand up there and read them. I could stand up all day and read the kind of things where we’re spending all of this money. The good news is that when you think of how rich a nation we can be when we get rid of this, you know, sometimes you’ll buy a company and you’ll see it was really well run. They accounted for every penny. Well, not much you can do there. You got yourself a bad deal. This one is the exact opposite. Tremendous fraud. Tremendous waste.
And when you think of what it is, you know, Elon uses the expression caring. If we had people that cared, just cared a little bit when they did contracts, when they negotiated with outside vendors on behalf of the United States. That’s what I’m doing now. I’m negotiating for the people of the United States. So we’re doing a great job of it.
I will say we found it’ll be hundreds of billions of dollars of waste and fraud and abuse.
Discussion on Ukraine and Peace Negotiations
EMMANUEL MACRON: I think this discussion is a very important one. First, because it’s important for the U.S. and it will be a good occasion for a first very important meeting between President Trump and President Zelensky. Second, I think there is a lot of economic upside on both sides. And third, de facto there is a recognition of Ukrainian sovereignty, a recognition of the Ukrainian interests. And this is de facto a very important alignment of interests.
Now, the security guarantees will be negotiated in due time in a full-fledged package of a peace security. But this peace, as it is now written and negotiated, and as this meeting is scheduled, is an important step forward, full-fledged peace agreement.
Specific Questions to the Presidents
REPORTER: Mr. President Trump. President Macron. I would like to make a deal with Putin. So when you do a deal, it’s a win-win deal, what are you giving to him and what is he going to give you to America? And I was impressed by the way you referred to Notre Dame and that you were impressed by the reconstruction of Notre Dame. A lot of Americans have sent money to Paris to participate to the reconstruction of Notre Dame. As the President of the United States, are you going to contribute to the reconstruction of Ukraine?
And Mr. President Macron. President Macron, what for you is the main area of progress in your meeting with President Trump? Can you confirm that there is an agreement to send European peacekeeping troops? Will France participate in that? How many troops? What would they be doing? Would this represent a great danger to send French and European troops to Ukraine?
Responses to Questions
DONALD TRUMP: Well, I guess it’s a little strange question because you ask whether or not we’re going to, on behalf of the United States, contribute to Ukraine. I mean, we’re in there for about $350 billion. I think that’s a pretty big contribution.
I do appreciate the first part of your question, however, because I think they’ve done an incredible job with the Cathedral of Notre Dame. I think the President has done, I know he headed it up and I know how hard he worked and it took a period of time, but really not a long period of time considering what that was so delicate, so beautiful. And I was there and I saw the work and I’m very good at construction. I know good construction. I know bad construction. They did a beautiful job and this man has to be given a lot of credit for that. It’s an incredible cathedral. Most people thought it couldn’t be saved and if it was, it would have to be built in a different form and we didn’t want to see a different form. We wanted to see the same form that you built.
So I just want to congratulate you. That was an amazing job. I don’t think you’ve gotten enough credit for it. Someday you will. Someday you will.
EMMANUEL MACRON: Merci beaucoup. Thank you very much. To go back to your question, today’s discussion showed several areas of progress.
First, we have been working a great deal with President Zelensky to have a proposal that’s acceptable to Ukraine. President Trump has confirmed that he will be meeting with President Zelensky very soon to finalize the agreement on critical minerals and rare earths and to speak together about that matter. That’s a very important step forward.
The second thing is that during our discussions, we were able to go into some of the details about the proposal that we have just made to have a truce, a peace and be able to measure that and then structure our discussions on that basis. France and several other European countries along with Ukraine are hard at work to build this lasting peace with very specific points including security guarantees, the territories that belong to Ukraine, the issue of reconstruction, the economy and critical minerals. We’ve been able to go into the details of those proposals.
The third area of progress which really marked a turning point is the fact that we were able to talk about the details of the security guarantees and the President has shown this over the past few days and he said so a moment ago. We want peace. He wants peace. We want peace swiftly but we don’t want an agreement that is weak.
The fact that there are Europeans that are ready to engage, to provide for these security guarantees and now there’s a clear American message that the U.S. as an ally is ready to provide that solidarity for that approach. That’s a turning point in my view and that is one of the great areas of progress that we’ve made during this trip and during this discussion.
Potential Troop Deployment
When it comes to troops, in the past, a year ago specifically, we saw a reason to talk about sending troops for strategic reasons. Today when we talk about troops, we’re talking about sending them in after we’ve negotiated a lasting peace and once we have that solid lasting peace that’s part of an agreement signed by Ukraine, signed by Russia and for which we will provide the guarantees.
Then at that point, and recently France has worked with the U.K. to provide its contributions. We’ve worked on plans. We’ve worked with our militaries not to go to the front lines, not to go into occupied territories but as a show of support to show that we have a negotiated peace signed by both sides and that is a peace we will preserve. So these would be peaceful deployments of troops, not for combat. These would be deployments of an assurance force. They would be limited but they show solidarity.
I’ve also spoken with all of our allies and there are European and non-European allies who are ready and willing to take part in that effort. Countries have helped Ukraine maintain its military capabilities in terms of the number of soldiers it has, equipment, whereas others have provided logistical support on the ground.
The question is whether or in what form the U.S. will contribute and during our discussions and during the discussions with Russia, we’ve understood that this would be acceptable to Russia and that’s a very important area of progress and that means that in this context the Europeans will shoulder their part of the burden, their share of the burden.
We have a strong alliance that we’ve built over the decades. We have our solidarity and we have deterrence capacities. What does it mean? Would it be dangerous if there is an agreement signed by Ukraine and Russia thanks to the efforts of President Trump and if we provide the guarantees and Russia violates the agreement then it would be in conflict with everyone who is engaged in the peace process and that is a change. That was something we did not see in the past. It’s not what we saw in 2014. So that is the real change that we’re marking.
We have this deterrence capacity on the American side. We have the capacity for engagement on the European side and that’s something we’re going to continue working on together. It’s not dangerous but it’s credible. It’s less dangerous than things that could happen in the long term and I think this is what we need to do to ensure security and I say this very clearly.
We’re also talking about security for Europeans. I’ve been saying this for weeks now. If we do not guarantee the security of this territory within Europe then how can we guarantee our own security for one and all? We live just 1,500 kilometers from Ukraine and the Germans and Polish are even closer. So our collective security is important.
We need to answer this call for Europeans to be more engaged and Americans will be there still in solidarity. Europeans are working for their collective security but I really think this was a turning point today in our discussions.
DONALD TRUMP: Emmanuel, thank you very much. Great job and it’s been wonderful being with you. Say hello to your beautiful wife and we will see you again soon. We’ll be speaking often. We’ll get this thing worked out. So important and great job. Thank you.
