Tirana, May 16 (EFE).- French President Emmanuel Macron on Friday called on the European Union (EU) to denounce the “unacceptable” situation in Gaza to gain more credibility when condemning the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Speaking at the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Tirana, the French leader called for an immediate ceasefire in the Gaza Strip, to be followed by humanitarian and political responses.
According to Macron, denouncing the situation in Gaza is the only way for the rest of the world, including China, India, Africa, the Middle East, the Asia-Pacific region, and Latin America, to understand what the EU is doing in Ukraine.
These countries sometimes “do not understand what we are doing about Ukraine”, but they understand even less when “we remain silent” about Gaza, he said.
Macron called for the bloc’s to collectively wake up and maintain “coherence”.
He noted that it had become clear in the last few hours that Russia did not want a ceasefire in Ukraine, as evidenced by the Kremlin’s actions surrounding the Istanbul talks.
The French president recalled that Russia had only agreed to hold talks at the same level as those that took place in 2022 under pressure from the EU and the United States (US), and these talks did not produce any results.
He also called for a strong economic union and coordination among EU countries to deal with all economic attacks “from outside”, such as US tariffs, which create “unfair competition”.
“If we know how to act together, it is a huge firepower,” he added. EFE
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