'Peace must not mean a surrender of Ukraine,' Macron says after talks with Trump
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What are the key discussions between the US and France on Ukraine?
This is the Global News Podcast from the BBC World Service. I'm Bernadette Keogh, and in the early hours of Tuesday 25th February, these are our main stories. On the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the US and French presidents discussed the conflict at the White House. At the UN, the US has joined Russia and North Korea in voting down an EU resolution which condemns the invasion and backs Ukraine's sovereignty. The man poised to become Germany's next Chancellor, Friedrich Metz, says defence, the economy and what he called the unresolved issue of migration are among the key issues facing a new government.
Also in this podcast... It was a dream for me, to be honest with you. To actually do it was quite an emotional experience for me and I feel ever so grateful.
a potential breakthrough for people with spinal cord injuries. And the singer Roberta Flack has died. When he was last in office, President Trump considered his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron as one of his closest allies in Europe. Their friendship was on display again at the White House when Mr Macron became the first European leader to meet Mr Trump there since he returned to office. The French president's priority was to find common ground with him on ending the war in Ukraine and ensuring that Europe plays a role in any negotiated peace with Russia. President Trump said that he wanted a deal with President Putin as soon as possible.
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.
Up until President Biden left the White House last month, there was little sign that America or Europe was willing to try to end the war in Ukraine anytime soon. But President Macron said that so much had changed since Mr Trump took office that it was time to speak to Mr Putin.
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 there is a big change because there is a new US administration. So this is a new context. So there is good reason for President Trump to re-engage with President Putin.
Listening to both presidents was our reporter in Washington, Bernd Debusman.
It was certainly very cordial and very friendly. It was all smiles as the two kind of greeted each other outside the Oval Office. And there seemed, at least publicly, there seemed to be very little discord between them. At one point in an Oval Office kind of mini press conference they gave this morning, Macron did jump in and correct what he thought was an incorrect assertion from Donald Trump that Ukraine is paying Europe back for its aid. Macron jumped in and said, no, actually, that's not the case. We're paying for 60% of it. But besides that, it really was very friendly. At the press conference this afternoon, Trump began by describing their long friendship and the long friendship between France and the United States going back to the kind of beginning of the United States. So it was really quite warm.
And what did they agree on substantively? And also, were there any areas of real difference?
Well, they did seem to agree, at least in theory, that Europe and NATO countries should contribute a larger share and a larger bulk of the defense aid to Ukraine. Where there wasn't necessarily an agreement was what the security guarantees for Ukraine would be after the war. President Trump was quite quiet on that, whereas Emmanuel Macron said that the United States has to play a very substantive part in guaranteeing Ukraine's sovereignty going forward. So there seemed to be a little bit of a disconnect there. And furthermore, there was also kind of an agreement that this rare earths mineral deal, which the Trump administration so badly wants and has been kind of the subject of back and forth for over a week now. Emmanuel Macron seemed to think that It's actually a good thing.
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