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France's Macron urges calm after Trump and Zelenskyy clash

02 March 2025 00:45 (UTC +04:00)

French President Emmanuel Macron spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump on Saturday and called for calm in an interview following Friday's clash between the U.S. and Ukrainian leaders at the White House, APA reports citing Reuters.

The French presidency said Macron had also spoken to British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, European Council President Antonio Costa and NATO chief Mark Rutte, on the eve of a meeting of European leaders on Ukraine on Sunday in London.

"I think that beyond the frayed nerves, everybody needs to calm down, show respect and gratitude, so we can move forward concretely, because what's at stake is too important," Macron said in an interview with several Sunday newspapers.

Macron said in the interview that Zelenskyy had told him he was willing to "restore dialogue" with the United States, including on a deal giving U.S. access to revenues from Ukraine's natural resources, but did not say what Trump told him in the call.

"America's manifest destiny is to be alongside Ukrainians, I have no doubts about that," he was quoted as saying by La Tribune Dimanche. "I want the Americans to understand that withdrawing support to Ukraine is not in their interest."

Macron also said that at a planned European Union summit on March 6 he hoped there would be unanimous support for a joint debt plan at the EU level to raise "several hundred billion euros" for European defence.