// LEADERS' VIEWS
EMMANUEL MACRON, PRESIDENT, FRANCE
Stronger together: Uniting for peace, prosperity and sovereignty F rance – through its culture, way of life and language – is defending democracies, international solidarity, development, fair trade and protecting the planet … We both believe
Ukrainians to resist until they can negotiate a deal with Russia that ensures a solid peace for themselves and for all of us … A peace deal can’t be signed at any price on orders from Russia. Peace can’t mean Ukraine’s capitulation. It can’t mean its collapse. Nor can it come about through a ceasefire, which would be too fragile. Why? Because once again, we’ve learned from the past. We can’t forget that Russia began its invasion of Ukraine in 2014, that we negotiated a ceasefire in Minsk, that Russia did not abide by that ceasefire and that we were unable to maintain it due to a lack of solid guarantees. We can no longer take Russia at its word … Whether or not peace is achieved quickly in Ukraine, the European nations must be able to better defend themselves and to deter any new aggression … Whatever happens, we must be better equipped; we must improve our defence posture for the sake of peace and for the purpose of deterrence. In that regard, we remain committed to NATO and to our partnership with the United States, but we must do more … … France is in a unique position. We have the most effective military in Europe and … we possess nuclear deterrence capabilities … Our military budget will have doubled over close to 10 years … … France will follow only one course: that of the desire for peace and freedom, true to its history and its principles. Yes, that is what we believe in for our security, and that is also what we believe in when it comes to defending democracy, a certain idea of the truth, a certain idea of free research, a certain idea of respect in our society, a certain idea of freedom of expression that eschews hate speech, and a certain idea of humanism … … No longer will our generation enjoy the peace dividends. It is up to us to ensure that one day, our children will enjoy the dividends of our efforts. Address to the French people, 5 March 2025
an irreducible part of Canada’s identity, just like the First Peoples and the British legacy … Canada is a unique friend to us. … We ... want to be able to develop our most strategic projects with our closest, most loyal partners, because we’re convinced … that we are stronger
that fair trade which respects international rules is a good thing for everyone’s prosperity, and it’s certainly
more effective than tariffs, which create inflation and damage production chains and the integration of our economies. We too believe that the freedom of expression so dear/precious to our countries is not the same as an outpouring of hatred, violence, online harassment and opaque algorithms. That’s why your G7 presidency in 2025 should be an opportunity for us to make progress on each of these points and basically uphold together a fair international order, in other words something that is neither the law of the strongest nor isolationism, and that’s why we’re fighting. Statement ahead of the working lunch with Canadian prime minister Mark Carney, 17 March 2025 The war in Ukraine, which has killed or injured nearly a million people, is continuing at the same level of intensity … Russia has already made the Ukrainian conflict a global conflict. It has deployed North Korean soldiers and Iranian equipment on our continent, while helping those countries to further rearm. President [Vladimir] Putin’s Russia violates our borders to murder his opponents and manipulates elections in Romania and Moldova … Russia is continuing to rearm, spending more than 40% of its budget for that purpose. By 2030, it plans to have further expanded its army … Russia has become a threat to France and Europe now and for years to come … … We must continue helping the
together, better able to ensure that our interests are respected and to exercise our sovereignty to the full … We’ve already had initial successes, as proven by the recent announcement that a consortium including French businesses had been chosen for the first stage of the planned high-speed train between Quebec and Toronto … Further proof is the very strong turnout by your investors and businesses at the artificial intelligence summit, which shows Canada’s strong presence and the partnership we have together in this area. Our businesses are also talking about mutual investments in the critical-metals sector – essential building-blocks for any energy transition. nuclear energy, which is the focus of long-standing cooperation between our two countries, and on quantum, where our research centres and businesses have knowledge unique in the world … We’re going to continue making active efforts together, because we’re holding successive G7 presidencies, with challenges which await you in a few weeks’ time and which we’ll continue addressing, as we did from Charlevoix to Biarritz a few years ago. We’ll also make sure that our friendship is useful in promoting our values and our shared commitments to I know how much you’re also promoting fresh ambition on
12 // G7 CANADA: THE KANANASKIS SUMMIT 2025
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