President Macron Says Ukraine Allies Have Agreed to Security Guarantees for Kyiv

JAKARTA - French President Emmanuel Macron said European and United States allies on Tuesday agreed on security guarantees for "Kyiv", which came into effect after a ceasefire in the war against Russia, with the United States leading the ceasefire monitoring mechanism, French President Emmanuel Macron said.

President Macron, along with a number of other European leaders, the President of Ukraine, and the Special Envoy of the United States, attended the Paris Summit on Tuesday. The "Coalition of the Willing" meeting discussed security guarantees for Ukraine.

President Macron, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky signed a declaration of agreement that estimates Britain, France and other European allies will deploy troops in Ukrainian territory after a ceasefire.

President Macron said after the meeting in Paris, the measures represented "a strong guarantee of solid and lasting peace," praising the "operational convergence" between allies including the United States, as reported by Al Arabiya from AFP (7/1).

"This security guarantee is the key to ensuring that the peace agreement will never mean the surrender of Ukraine and that the peace agreement will never mean a new threat to Ukraine" from Russia, said President Macron.

Amid tensions between Europe and the US over Greenland and Venezuela, US envoy Steve Witkoff, who was present at the talks in Paris, said "a lot of progress" had been made.

Allies "have largely completed" a security guarantee deal for Ukraine "so that the Ukrainian people know that when this is over, it's over for good," he said, accompanied by President Donald Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who was also present in the talks.

Witkoff said "land options" would be the "most critical issue" and "hopefully we can reach some sort of compromise on that."

PM Starmer himself said after the ceasefire, Britain and France would build "military centers" throughout Ukraine and "build protected facilities for weapons and military equipment to support Ukraine's defense needs."

But he warned: "We can only reach a peaceful agreement if (Russian President Vladimir) Putin is ready to compromise. Putin has not shown that he is ready for peace."

"This only strengthens our determination," he added.

Meanwhile, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, whose country is wary of troop contributions to multinational forces, said German troops could join to monitor the Ukrainian ceasefire, but be based in neighboring countries.

"We must definitely make compromises," he said in Paris, adding "we will not reach a diplomatic solution that is in line with the textbook."