BUENOS AIRES (Reuters) – French President Emmanuel Macron said that a major Russian air barrage against Ukraine on Sunday showed that Russian President Vladimir Putin “does not want peace and is not ready to negotiate”.
The priority for France was to “equip, support and help Ukraine to resist”, Macron told reporters as he prepared to leave Argentina to attend the G20 Summit in Brazil.
He declined to comment on German Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s call with Putin on Friday, adding that Ukraine’s allies “must remain united …. on an agenda for genuine peace, that is to say, a peace that does not mean Ukraine’s surrender”.
Regarding trade talks between the European Union and the Mercosur bloc, Macron reiterated France’s opposition to a deal due to concerns over agricultural imports from South America that do not meet European standards.
But Macron said Argentine President Javier Milei also expressed dissatisfaction to him with the current terms of the trade accord, reached in 2019 but never ratified as France objected.
“I come out of this meeting with the belief that we’re not there yet and I would like to reassure our farmers,” Macron said after meeting Milei on Sunday.
The EU-Mercosur talks have led French farmers to plan nationwide protests from Monday.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Pineau and Gus Trompiz; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne and Kevin Liffey)
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