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The French and German leaders will be joined by the Polish prime minister later in the day, according to one German official Donald Tusk – this will be the first meeting of the “Weimar Triangle” – the three-party dialogue format – since D. Tusk in December. became the Prime Minister of Poland again.
Leaders say the meeting will be a show of unity after a tense period in which friction between France and Germany over Ukraine has escalated into open rift.
Long-simmering tensions boiled over in late February, when Macron refused to rule out sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine and vowed to do “everything necessary to prevent Russia from winning this war.” The more cautious O. Scholz answered the same, rejecting the possibility of using the ground forces of European countries.
A few days later, E. Macron seems to have answered O. Scholz directly. “Europe is clearly facing a moment when it will be necessary not to be cowards,” he told an audience in Prague. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius responded that Macron’s comments “do not help to resolve the questions we have when it comes to aid to Ukraine.”
German officials privately complain that while Macron has been tight-lipped about helping Ukraine, he has not followed through and provided nowhere near as much military support as he did Germany.
The German Kiel Institute, which prepares the contributions of the states to the Ukrainian hostilities, classifies France as one of the obviously lagging countries, having provided 640 million. EUR military aid, compared to Germany, which provided or promised to provide 17.7 billion euros.
The French dispute these figures and claim that they yield really important weapons. “Francein providing military aid to Ukraine, has chosen the principle of operationality: promise what you can deliver and deliver what you can promise,” Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu said recently in his statement on the X website.
Macron postponed a long-planned visit to Ukraine this week amid tensions with allies over his increasingly tough rhetoric. The Elysée Palace announced on Sunday that the visit would now take place “over the next few weeks”.
The decision to postpone the visit was made to allow time for talks with allies to achieve “tangible results” for Ukraine, a French diplomat told Politico, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the sensitive issue.
It is expected that E. Macron will arrive at the Berlin chancellery on Friday around noon for a bilateral conversation with O. Scholz. After the meeting between E. Macron and O. Scholz, a tripartite discussion will take place with Polish Prime Minister D. Tusk.
Leaders have tried to present the Weimar format as a means of strengthening European security, although it is far from clear whether Tusk’s inclusion in the discussion will help ease the lingering friction between O. Scholz and E. Macron.
Tusk’s government officials have expressed support for Macron’s tougher rhetoric, and Polish Foreign Minister Radoslav Sikorski recently said that the presence of NATO troops in Ukraine “is not unthinkable.”
A senior German official said no concrete decisions or announcements were expected from Friday’s talks, which were aimed at sending a new signal of unity.
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