Paris. January 30th. INTERFAX - French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said that he sees no contradictions between the EU countries regarding the reaction to Russia's possible actions against Ukraine, either in terms of economic sanctions or in military terms.
"I don't feel any differences between Europeans. My German colleague, with whom I talk almost every day, said very clearly what would happen to the Nord Stream 2 project in the event of Russian aggression. And according to the assurances of NATO allies, our positions are unanimous here," the French Foreign Minister said in an interview published on Sunday with the newspaper Le Journal du dimanche.
He said he was going to Bucharest on Wednesday to confirm to Romania that "France can be a base country at the military level in this security scenario, as announced by the President of the Republic (Emmanuel Macron).
According to him, Germany "is already doing exactly the same thing in Lithuania at the moment."
When asked why, with regard to sanctions "in case of Russian aggression," it should not be immediately clear that "if the Russians invade Ukraine, the SWIFT bank transfer system will be disabled for them or that the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline will not come into effect," Le Drian replied that "the principle of massive sanctions is aimed at deterring Russia from attacking Ukraine."
"For it (the principle) to be effective, there must be a minimum of ambiguity. A detailed description of (restrictive) measures would harm the joint will of the Allies to act effectively. But these financial and economic sanctions should be strong enough for Russia to ask about the risks to its own economy if it decides to encroach on Ukraine's sovereignty again," the French minister explained.
He did not give a direct answer to the question about the attitude to the US decision to supply more LNG to Europe to compensate for the termination of Russian gas supplies to the EU in the event of conflict and sanctions.
"We are holding discussions between the Europeans and with the allies regarding the measures that will be taken against Russia in order to order mitigation of the consequences if Russia takes initiatives to retaliate against sanctions," the French Foreign Minister said.
Answering the question of what the reaction of the West will be if Russia tries to conquer not all of Ukraine, but only to link the already "annexed Crimea" with its south, Le Drian said that "any further encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine will have huge consequences." "It's not clearer to say. My German colleague says: "Not another step" (on the part of the Russian Federation). And I also use this expression," he said.
The French Foreign Minister does not yet see signs of any progress in the dialogue between France and Russia on overcoming the unstable situation on the Ukrainian border. At the same time, he noted that his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov would study the "collective responses of the allies to Russia's demands," in which he would "see material for discussion."
