Macron: G7 Summit Shifted Trump's Position on Ukraine Conflict

PARIS, June 19. /TASS/. Participants in the Group of Seven (G7) summit held in France from June 15-17 succeeded in shifting US President Donald Trump’s position on the Ukraine conflict, French President Emmanuel Macron said in an interview with France 2.

"The quality of the discussion between [Vladimir] Zelensky and Trump, as well as - for the first time since his election - the convergence of positions and the consensus reached between European countries, Canada, Japan, and the United States, are significant achievements of recent days," Macron said.

In his view, the G7 summit brought about a "real change" in the US approach to the Ukraine conflict. Macron also expressed confidence that Trump no longer believes that Kiev is losing the conflict. "And I saw that President Trump and his Secretary of State [Marco] Rubio clearly outlined the issues on which they are ready to move forward and the conditions for a future discussion on conflict settlement," the French president added.

Following a bilateral meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the sidelines of the G7 summit, Trump told reporters that his administration would consider Ukraine’s request to allow the production of missiles for US-made Patriot air defense systems. He also declined to specify whether he considers Moscow or Kiev responsible for the continuation of the armed conflict in Ukraine and for the alleged reluctance to reach peace agreements. After the summit, he said that Kiev’s battlefield situation is currently "not bad," while acknowledging that Russia is a large country, stronger in military terms.