PM in Paris where President Macron insists “West has not ruled out putting boots on ground”
Portugal’s outgoing prime minister, Antonio Costa, made placatory noises in Paris last night following President Macron’s remarks that European nations “have not ruled out putting boots on the ground in Ukraine”.
Mr Costa was in the French capital for a high-level meeting for continued support for Ukraine, called by Mr Macron to mark the two years since Russia’s full scale invasion of the country.
According to international sources, Mr Macron was bullish. Nothing should be excluded as the West looks for a strategy to counter Russia, which controls just under a fifth of the territory recognised as Ukraine.
The French leader “cautioned that there was no consensus at this stage” for this kind of strategy, and Mr Costa reined back from the stance altogether (as did Germany’s prime minister Olaf Scholz).
The outgoing Portuguese leader referred to ‘international law’, and compared Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, to Indonesia’s occupation of East Timor:
“We Portuguese have good reason to realise the importance of calling for the primacy of international law, even in the most difficult circumstances. We all remember that, for many years, Timor-Leste was a territory illegally occupied by Indonesia and there were times when Portugal was alone on the international stage fighting for the defence of the right to self-determination of the people of East Timor,” but “when many already believed that it was not possible, the truth is that international law prevailed and that is the best demonstration that international law is the great weapon of small countries and peoples who want to be free and live in peace,” he said.
“To call for the preservation and the basic right to international law in Ukraine is for us to be guaranteeing our own security in the future.”
While Slovak counterpart, Robert Fico, suggested some Western countries are already considering bilateral agreements to send troops to Ukraine, Mr Costa maintained “there is no scenario in which that question has arisen“.
“Nor do I see that any NATO country should do so and, above all, these are decisions that, if taken, will have to be taken collectively, because in a collective defence alliance the generation of risks is also in everyone’s common interest, but it was not a topic” at this meeting in Paris, he said.
Nevertheless, statements were made by Emmanuel Macron at the start of the meeting: “We will do everything that we must so that Russia does not win”, being just one.
Mr Costa remained resolute: “This is not the time to speculate. We have to prepare for the different risks, but with great determination and with the awareness that the way we have been able to demonstrate today the ability to support the extraordinary effort of the Ukrainian people in their own defence, in the defence of international law, is the best defence we can say for our own in the future”.
The Paris meeting was attended by 27 leaders and representatives of European Union countries and others, and follows commitments by the EU to create a €50 billion financial reserve to help Ukraine over the next four years.
The meeting has already seen sources at the Kremlin warn of ‘inevitable’ war, if NATO was indeed to act in the way the French president intimated.
According to reports, the whole idea of the meeting was “to contradict any impression that things are crumbling. There is no fatigue (in supporting Ukraine)”, an Elysée official said, suggesting leaders wanted to “make President Putin doubt”.
Source material: LUSA/ Reuters/ Daily Mail/ Financial Times
