PARIS, March 15. /TASS/. French President Emmanuel Macron stated his intent Monday to have another phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin shortly.
"Europe cannot be safe if it doesn’t engage in a dialogue with Russia. This is our history, our geography. Therefore I intend to talk with President Putin in the upcoming hours," Macron said on TV Monday.
According to Macron, the main goal is to "avoid the worst" during the conflict in Ukraine, by ensuring ceasefire and a "truce architecture" as soon as possible.
The French leader noted that he is mostly satisfied with the process of negotiations with his Russian counterpart, providing the agreement on safety and IAEA supervision of Ukrainian nuclear power plants as an example. However, in his opinion, "it is necessary to continue" negotiations, because "every gained centimeter matters."
In this context, Macron noted that, by engaging in frequent dialogue with Putin, he and other Western leaders seek to "stop the war without fighting the war."
"It is necessary to prepare conditions for peace now already, because the war will end when everybody sits down at the table and time will come to determine who is ready to promise what. Therefore, in order to be ready, we must get ready now already," the president said.