Paris (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – French President Emmanuel Macron will hold a crucial meeting in Paris on March 11, 2025, with military chiefs from 30 European and NATO nations, including the UK and Turkey to examine security guarantees for Ukraine.
Macron is to address the meeting, which he has stated is being held in tight collaboration with NATO military command. This meeting comes as US President Donald Trump announced a suspension of military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv, forcing European countries to reconsider their security dependencies.
Trump has also restarted communication with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and attacked Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky, raising worries in Kyiv and among European partners that the US leader may attempt to force Ukraine to take a settlement favouring Russia.
How does the UK fit into Macron’s proposed ‘coalition of the willing’?
Over the past few weeks, Macron and UK PM Keir Starmer have been overseeing efforts to create a so-called “coalition of the willing” to implement an eventual ceasefire in Ukraine. Macron last week expressed that any European soldiers in Ukraine would only be deployed
“once a peace deal is signed, to guarantee it is fully respected”.
Defence ministers from Europe’s five major military powers – France, the UK, Italy, Germany and Poland – are to also hold talks in the French capital. Those discussions will centre on the “necessary rearmament of Europe” and military aid to Ukraine, one of the French defence minister’s deputies has said. Starmer will, in turn, host virtual talks on Saturday with leaders of the nations willing to help support the ceasefire, his office has expressed.
What is Macron’s vision for a more independent European defence?
Analysts say, Macron’s decision to hold the defence heads meeting reflects his long-held goal of a more independent European defence strategy. Macron emphasised the need for Europe to be ready to act alone if necessary. He is considering the changing geopolitical landscape and uncertainties surrounding external support.
Macron also announced that France must be ready to increase if the United States is no longer willing or able to deliver support. France’s obligation is reinforced by the European Union’s ambitious goals to ramp up defence spending.
He has raised France’s nuclear deterrent offer to the rest of Europe, with the purpose of securing partnership by mid-2025. Clément Beaune, High Commissioner for Planning in France and former Minister for Europe, emphasising that while Europeans are committed to rearming, “a lot of time has been lost on European defence”.
