"There was no consensus": Austria reacts to Macron's comments on possible sending troops to Ukraine

Austrian Foreign Minister Alexander Schallenberg responded to French President Emmanuel Macron's comments that he does not rule out sending Western troops to Ukraine, UNN reports citing Le Monde.

Details

The French president's statements are "contrary" to what is needed now, namely the "diplomatic perspective," criticized Schallenberg, whose country is one of the few EU countries that is not a member of NATO.

It is obvious that yesterday in Paris there was no consensus on this at all

At the same time, the conservative Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer attended the Ukraine summit in Paris, where he called for the start of peace talks as soon as possible. "It's very unexpected to speak on a topic on which there is no consensus, and thus to trigger a debate that we don't really need," Schallenberg said.

According to the Austrian ORF, Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer was also concerned about the involvement of Western soldiers. Nehammer said that he looks at every escalation of the war with concern. "The more NATO countries get involved in the conflict, the more uncertain the situation becomes for all of us," he said.

According to ORF, Nehammer also spoke about the negotiations. It is about "full solidarity" with Kyiv and at the same time "working to end the deaths". Nehammer called on the BRICS countries to "engage much more closely" to be able to put enough pressure on Russia and President Vladimir Putin to end the war of aggression. "Nehammer was one of the last Western heads of government to meet personally with Putin. He also has not ruled out a future meeting with Putin," the newspaper notes.

Addendum

On February 26, at the end of a conference on Ukraine in Paris, Macron saidthat sending Western troops to Ukraine should not be ruled out.