French President Emmanuel Macron will travel to Berlin on Friday to meet with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and try to reduce the tensions centered around Ukraine, writes Politico. Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will join French and German leaders later in the day.
The meeting is intended to demonstrate unity after a tense period in which Franco-German differences over Ukraine disintegrated into open hostility. Tensions, which have long been building, escalated in late February when Macron suggested sending Western troops to fight in Ukraine, vowing to do “everything possible to ensure that the Russian Federation cannot win this war.” At the same time, Scholz ruled out the use of ground forces by European countries.
German officials are said to privately complain that while Macron has given strong vocal support to Ukraine, he has not provided it with the same military support as Germany has.