JUDY WOODRUFF: We return to the diplomatic efforts
to resolve the Russian-generated crisis over Ukraine and the expansion of NATO.
Nick Schifrin has more.
NICK SCHIFRIN: French President Emmanuel Macron's dual meetings with Russian President Vladimir
Putin yesterday in Moscow and Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky today in Kyiv
aimed to find common ground that could help de-escalate tensions in the region.
So, what is the French president's vision for solving this crisis?
For that, we turn to Philippe Etienne, France's ambassador to the United States.
Ambassador, welcome back to the "NewsHour."
Do you believe, after President Macron's visits
to Moscow and Kyiv, that we are on the path of de-escalation and diplomacy?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE, French Ambassador to the United States: Thank you for having me tonight, Nick.
Well, at least, the visit is an important one. The visits are important, because those dialogue
are absolutely necessary to find the path to de-escalation. And there was a third visit
in Germany after Kyiv where President Macron met with President Duda -- Poland chairs the
OSCE -- and with German Chancellor Scholz, just back from Washington. And Germany chairs the G7.
So, the chairs of the E.U., the G7 and OSCE were together in Berlin.
All this shows there is a unity, a coordination between allies, between Europeans and Americans,
to go for a de-escalation of the situation.
NICK SCHIFRIN: As you know, some in Washington and Kyiv
in Ukraine fear that President Macron is more focused on reelection and putting Europe in
the center of the debate now that former German Chancellor Angela Merkel is gone.
So what is President Macron really trying to do?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: This fear is completely unjustified.
It's really important to maintain this unity. And we are doing that. And what we try to do is
to deter an aggression and to avoid a war, then to keep our unity, our solidarity
in a way which makes us together stronger to deter this aggression,
but then also to have this dialogue, because, if we don't speak with the Russian leader,
with the president of Russia, how do you want to find this path to de-escalation?
And what does it mean, de-escalation? It means also,
as Germany and France are mediating in the Eastern Ukraine conflict in 2014,
make progress in the implementation of the so-called Minsk agreements.
NICK SCHIFRIN: So, let's go into some of those specifics.
You helped create the Minsk accords. You were intimately involved in their being written. Those,
of course, are diplomatic agreements. And they call on Kiev to give Donetsk and Luhansk,
those Eastern regions that are largely controlled by Russian-backed separatists,
to give those regions special status.
But, today, we heard from Ukraine's foreign minister, who said that any kind of autonomy for
those regions are beyond a red line or red line that they wouldn't cross. So what's the solution?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: The solution -- and both President Zelensky and President Putin recommitted
clearly their countries to this -- is the implementation of the Minsk agreement.
We know it is a difficult subject for our Ukrainian partners, but we, together with Germany,
well, they are in the Normandy format also to engage with Russia and to go on this way.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But how can you proceed when the Minsk accords is calling for something
that Kyiv itself does not want to provide?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: Well, I cannot agree with you, because, today, during the visit to Kyiv, the
Ukrainian leader recommitted, like yesterday in Moscow.
The president of Russia also recommitted their countries to these Minsk agreement.
But we stand firm with the Ukrainians in the way these agreements have to be negotiated.
We will not accept some of the requests which are done, with are being presented by the other side.
NICK SCHIFRIN: The other side, of course, being Russia.
Minsk calls for Russian-backed separatists to fully lay down their arms and to return
control of the border between Russia and Ukraine that they currently control.
Do you believe that Ukraine needs to take the first step, needs to talk about its political part
of Minsk, before Russian-backed separatists take some of these military steps?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: Everybody has to make his part.
And, as I told you, the Ukrainian government has always taken an important step recently.
And the Minsk agreements and the implementation of the Minsk agreements, by the way, are not
only about the political side. It's also about very important humanitarian
subjects which are important for those populations which suffer loss, and also about the
possibility to secure a cease-fire, a complete cease-fire.
And there was in December, at the first -- at the last meeting of the advisers,
this commitment for a complete cease-fire.
NICK SCHIFRIN: But there is there a problem of who goes first?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: There is a sequencing, which is very difficult.
In all those political settlements, in all those agreements, very often,
there is -- the most difficult issue is the issue of who's moving first, of course. But
we are there, together with Germany, to help Ukraine and Russia to move in this direction.
NICK SCHIFRIN: President Macron said today: "I secured an assurance
there would be no deterioration or escalation from President Putin."
What did President Putin specifically promise to do or not to do?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: I was not -- you know, there were meetings both in Kyiv and
in Moscow which were one-to-one. So I wasn't there. And I can't be more specific
that what President -- our president, President Macron, said about what President Putin told him.
But, anyway, we are also -- the unity, I mean, and the coordination between allies
is also important on the side of the deterrence, and the deterrence of any aggression by Russia.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Senior NATO officials I speak to say that one of their goals
right now is to prevent any war in Ukraine from spilling into NATO.
Do you fear that Russia could use the war in Ukraine to divide NATO, whether militarily,
through migrants, or through Eastern European NATO members that have relationships with Moscow?
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: Unity, solidarity is indeed a core issue. And we keep this
very, very much in our mind. If Russia wants to divide us, I don't think it will be a success.
But for keeping this unity, we also need, indeed, to reassuring the countries which
are at the eastern border of NATO. This is the reason why different countries,
including the U.S. and France, announced their availability or their decisions
to take concrete measures and to deploy troops in those countries, such as Poland and Romania.
And they're both...
(CROSSTALK)
NICK SCHIFRIN: Philippe Etienne...
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: We are in -- France, already in Estonia,
and we said we were available, pending a decision by NATO, to deploy troops to Romania.
NICK SCHIFRIN: Philippe Etienne, France's ambassador to the United
States, thank you very much.
PHILIPPE ETIENNE: Thank you.