Macron assures that Russia has resurrected NATO and excludes going to Kiev for the moment

Paris, March 17 French President Emmanuel Macron, who claimed three years ago that NATO was “brain dead,” said Thursday that Russia's attack on Ukraine was “an electric shock” that woke her up, while ruling out, for now, traveling to Kiev. During the presentation of his electoral program for the presidential elections next April, Macron assured that he assumed what he said in 2019, when he considered the Atlantic Alliance dead, because then “there was no clear enemy and Turkey, a member of NATO, was attacking other members”. “Now Russia has given an electroshock that has awakened it,” said the president, who stressed that “at no time” he offered to leave the organization. “(Vladimir) Putin's war has created a threat that once again gives NATO strategic clarification. But I still think that we need to lift a European defense order and the war on our territory proves it,” he said. Macron explained that in 2019, he asked for a reflection on the renewal of NATO's strategy and that this impetus led to the creation of a commission whose conclusions will be discussed at the June summit in Madrid. The president, the favorite of all polls to renew his mandate at the head of the country, assured that he has always considered that NATO has positive things, such as the interoperability of the armies of member countries, as demonstrated in Syria. Macron assured that he will continue to do “everything possible” to stop the war in Ukraine and said that Putin has “a lamentable responsibility” in attacking “a fraternal people,” and insisted on distinguishing the Russian president from his people. He said he would maintain an open dialogue with his Russian counterpart, with whom he would meet “in the coming hours”, and did not rule out visiting Kiev in the near future, as requested by former Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko, under the circumstances. “I'm not ruling anything out, but my responsibility is to work in a meaningful way. When I went to Moscow and Kiev, I did it because I thought there was a card to play in favor of dialogue. I had to start this initiative,” he said. “But until something tangible has crystallized, going to Kiev would be in vain. My job is to wait for the right moment. I am not ruling it out, I will do it when it is useful,” he reiterated. CHIEF LMPG/AC/PI