France on Monday, Feb. 21, called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to make a decision on meeting US counterpart Joe Biden in a summit proposed by Paris to ease soaring tensions over Ukraine.
“It is today possible to move towards a summit and to bring the interested parties together. Now it is up to President Putin to make his choice,” a French presidential official, who asked not to be named, told reporters.
The official described the situation as “very dangerous” and the parties as “walking a fine line”.
The comments from the official came after 24 hours of frenetic diplomacy which saw President Emmanuel Macron speak to Putin twice by telephone and also to Biden in a bid to broker the summit plan.
“Against this background of very high volatility, of very great danger, we are making our last efforts, our most intense efforts, to avoid the worst,” said the official.
President Macron is “not resigned to defeat or the worst outcome. He is taking risks as it is customary for him to do,” said the official.
The Elysee released a statement in the early hours of Monday morning indicating that both Biden and Putin had agreed “in principle” to the summit.
The White House said that such a meeting could take place so long as Russia did not invade Ukraine. The Kremlin then described talking about a summit as premature and that there were no concrete plans.
The French official did not dispute the Kremlin’s assessment, saying an “objective had been set — but not reached — to create an occasion to speak”.
“We are not there yet. We are in a very volatile context but bit-by-bit we are changing how things are going.”
“We succeeded in opening a real diplomatic perspective” in the weekend talks, added the official, emphasising that the summit could only take place if there was no Russian invasion, and issues of substance to discuss.
France’s Europe Minister Clement Beaune told LCI TV earlier the summit idea showed that “a political solution could be possible”.
“If there is still a chance to avoid war, to avoid a confrontation and build a political and diplomatic solution, then we need to seize it,” he said.
© Agence France-Presse
