Foreign pool #12 Macron's remarks at Press Conference

Some excerpts of the opening remarks of President Macron at the Press conference (he spoke in French).

President Macron thanked President Trump again for coming to Paris for the reopening of Notre-Dame de Paris "Your presence underlined our friendship".

"This visit had one main objective : the geopolitical situation and i want to thank you Mr President for having accepted to rearrange your schedule in order to see us so quickly and I consider that we're really made some substantial steps forward during our discussion"

During the videoconference of G7 members "we told our support to President Zelensky, to the Ukrainian people and we shared our will to have a lasting peace. I believe that's what you (President Trump) repeated these past few weeks (lasting peace)."

"Europe invested $138 billions in aid to Ukraine. And I repeat "invested" because Ukraine was at the front of our collective security."

"These past hours, many things have happened. First, I applaud your decision to see the President Zelensky and to finalize this agreement that is important for the United States and for Ukrainians on critical minerals and rare earth."

"we discussed for a while with the President about our will to have a ceasefire that could then allow the negotiation of a lasting peace" "We'll talk about the security guarantees, how to maintain peace on the long term."

"Without these security guarantees, it won't work."

About the European allies "We want peace, it can not mean the surrender of Ukraine. This peace can' t be a ceasefire without guarantees. This peace has to lay out the conditions for Ukraine's sovereignty and has to allow Ukraine to negotiate with the different parties everything that concerns her and for which she is the only one legitimate to negotiate."

"For Europeans it's an existential question."

"We discussed with President Trump what we discussed with President Zelensky, with whom we went into the details of the different steps for the negotiations. We talked about the work that has been done with our British partners to conceive what could be the deployment of troops who will serve as peacekeepers on Ukraine territory, it would be a part of the security guarantees. Other countries are ready to join. And for this the solidarity and support of the USA is necessary. And I thank you Mr President to have started the work with us on this subject. I think that I can say that the agreement that you are about to sign with Ukraine and the discussions we had are solid guarantees in my opinion that we understood each other. And that we have the same goal : peace as soon as possible."

"I also came to share a message on the engagement of the Europeans. We are aware that the Europeans have to do more for the security and the defense of Europe. and in general to more fairly share the security burden that your country has been carrying for so many years."

"Mr President, dear Donald, this peace through strength in which you believe is also what we believe into."

"We also talked about economic subjects." "Our will is to have a fair competition"

"We share the same will to not see Iran get the nuclear weapon"

Sonia Dridi

Correspondante � Washington DC

Washington DC Correspondent

+ 1 XXX-XXX-XXXX