France steps up calls for a new security framework in Europe
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France has stepped up calls for a new security framework in Europe to replace the current “nearly obsolete or irrelevant” arrangements on arms control and transparency about troop movements.
In an interview with the FT, France’s foreign minister, Jean-Yves Le Drian, said an agreement was needed to ensure long-term stability on the continent, adding that Vladimir Putin had to choose whether “to make Russia a destabilising power” or “the partner, in a new security and stability order in Europe”.
French president Emmanuel Macron, who met Putin last week, has called for an overhaul of Europe’s security arrangements, while the European Commission has promised to come up with proposals.
In the FT interview Le Drian set out a three-phase approach to defusing the crisis: verified withdrawal of Russian forces from Ukraine’s borders; resumption of talks on the Minsk accords to end the fighting in Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region; a new European security framework.
The French foreign minister also said he did not believe Putin’s claims to be unaware of the actions of the Russian mercenary group Wagner in Mali. Wagner has been hired by the ruling military junta and is pushing out French troops deployed there since 2013 to fight Islamist insurgents.
Le Drian said”I cannot understand how President Putin can be unaware of this situation since they are former Russian soldiers, transported by Russian planes and using Russian weapons.” He added “Given the amount of intelligence available to President Putin and his closeness to the Wagner chief . . . one must conclude he knows. He says he doesn’t but I don’t believe him.”
