WASHINGTON: French President Emmanuel Macron called Monday for stepping up sanctions against Russia if its leader Vladimir Putin does not move forward on peace with Ukraine.
"President Trump believes we can get an agreement and believes that President Putin also wants a peace accord," Macron told reporters after talks at the White House.
"But if at the end this process is met by refusal, we are also ready to say that we need to increase sanctions."
He pointed to recent secondary sanctions imposed by the Trump administration on India, which has emerged as a major buyer of Russian energy as Western nations cut back due to sanctions following Putin's invasion of Ukraine. The secondary sanctions on India have "had a lot of effects," Macron said.
Trump invited Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to the White House three days after the US president welcomed Putin for talks in Alaska.
Over the weekend, Trump publicly again pressured Ukraine to concede territory, siding with Putin and not Zelensky, who has insisted on defending all territory which Russia has taken by force.
Asked by reporters if Trump had said that concessions were necessary before any US security guarantees to Ukraine, Macron said, "No, that wasn't discussed at all. We're well away from that."
He said that Trump and the European leaders also agreed that there can be no restrictions on the size of Ukraine's military in a future deal with Russia.
All the leaders meeting in Washington support a "robust Ukrainian army that can resist any attempted attack."
Macron said that he hoped Russia and Ukraine would resume contact "in the coming days" with a potential three-way summit involving Trump, Putin and Zelensky "in two to three weeks."