Macron convenes European chiefs of staff and announces military reform to ensure peace in Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron gave a speech Wednesday on public television to announce a new French road map in the face of the threat from Russia and geopolitical changes in the wake of discussions over Ukraine's future.

Macron, who is running to be the European leader to lead a European Union caught between the United States and Russia in the context of the ultimate negotiations for peace in Ukraine, touched on other dossiers such as the Trump Administration's tariffs on Europe.

European rearmament

Macron, who held a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer a few days ago, detailed in his speech that France will increase its military spending. He promised his citizens that it will be done without raising taxes.

He also made several references to the future of Ukraine and a fair peace agreement for Kyiv which he said "will involve also, perhaps, the deployment of European forces. They would not go to fight today, they would not go to fight on the front line, but they would be there (...) once the peace is signed, to ensure that it is fully respected."

In this regard, the French president announced that he has summoned the Chiefs of Staff of those countries willing to defend peace in Ukraine to a meeting in Paris next week.

The French president described the current international scene as that of a "world in danger" in which Europe must be independent of the United States for its defense. He stated that "the Russian threat is here" and "affects us" without "knowing borders," and considered that in the face of this world in danger, "it would be madness to remain a spectator," in an address to the nation on Ukraine and European defense.

"The Russian threat is here and affects the countries of Europe, it affects us," Macron stressed, recalling that Russia "has already turned the Ukrainian conflict into a global conflict," "violates our borders to murder opponents, manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova," "organizes digital attacks against our hospitals" and "tries to manipulate our opinions with lies spread on social networks."