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00:00About an hour ago, Emmanuel Macron made a roughly 14 minute speech from the Elysee Palace in Paris,
00:07which signalled a change in attitude towards defence, not just in France, but Macron calling
00:14for the same across Europe. He wants Europe to unite to get behind Ukraine in its existential
00:20fight against Russia's invasion. Emmanuel Macron unveiled a plan to increase French defence spending
00:28by 20 billion euros over the next five years. This, he says, will be a private-public partnership to,
00:35he says, avoid any tax increases on French citizens in order to fund that. He says it's
00:41essential that Europe unites to secure future peace, future security. He said Russia is now
00:49the enemy and cannot be trusted. He cited Vladimir Putin specifically on this issue.
00:54He cited the fact that Russia has twice broken treaties, namely the Minsk treaties over the
01:03issues in Ukraine, 2014, 2015, and he says that basically it is impossible to take Vladimir Putin
01:10at his word. He says Russia will be boosting its defences, its army, its weaponry as it goes along.
01:17He said Russia has made this a world conflict by bringing in Iran and North Korea and to an extent
01:25China in terms of the use of arms on the ground. And he said that Europe has the duty now to work
01:32together to create more security and to lend its support to Ukraine. Let's take a listen to the
01:38French president. As I speak to you and for the foreseeable, Russia has become a threat to France
01:47and Europe. I deeply regret this and I'm convinced that in the long term, peace will return to our
01:53continent with Russia once again at peace. But this is the situation I'm describing to you and
01:59we have to live with it. Faced with this dangerous world, it would be foolish to remain a spectator.
02:06Without further delay, we must make decisions for Ukraine, for the security of the French,
02:11for the security of Europeans.
02:16So security, the big issue that Emmanuel Macron pains to outline there, basically the increase
02:21of spending, 20 billion euros extra from now until 2030, is his way, he says, of re-industrialising
02:29certain parts of France. So that is something from the social aspect to look at in terms of
02:35increasing jobs, which is almost a welcome issue in many parts of the country. But on a broader
02:42scale and a pan-European scale, it's a question of creating a platform from which the continent can
02:48defend itself and, at this point in time, lend its support to Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine's
02:54fight against Vladimir Putin and Russia. James Andre has been observing matters for us. He joins
02:59us now live from the Élysée Palace. James, President Macron here, in many ways,
03:06opening the door to a different kind of future in terms of defence for France and Europe.
03:14Yes, absolutely. Emmanuel Macron, who really wanted to offer something very didactic today
03:18and to try and convince the French people that indeed they needed to shift gears, that basically
03:23the recipes of the past could not apply to what is happening now across Europe. Emmanuel Macron,
03:30that we've been seeing over the past few days, in a flurry of diplomatic activity. We saw him
03:35indeed last Sunday. He was in London on the 24th of February. He was in Washington, basically
03:43showing support for Vladimir Zelensky. And this is the message he really clearly hammered to the
03:48French public. We must back Vladimir Zelensky. He said we need to back Ukraine in order to achieve
03:56sustainable, solid peace to protect Ukraine, but also to protect Europe. And also explaining to
04:02the French public that, yes, there will be more military spending, that obviously he does not want
04:08to hike taxes. But what he wants to do, he says, is to redistribute the spending of the nation,
04:15which he says means there will be sacrifices, there will be tough choices to make, but also
04:20call upon the French public to mobilize, to get ready, and indeed to get ready to defend France
04:25and its values in the face of what has become, as he put it, a renewed threat coming from the East.
04:34Emmanuel Macron saying that indeed tomorrow at this European summit, it will really be the
04:39kickstarting of a European defense, that rules would be changed inside the Union in order to
04:44allow countries to have deficit if that money is spent on defense, but also creating financial
04:52mechanisms, reindustrializing France, basically recreating a whole economy of the defense that
04:59needs to be sovereign and that needs to be integrated here in France. Indeed, Macron says
05:04also he will open debate about extending the French nuclear umbrella to EU partner nations.
05:09James, bear with us a second, because as you've been observing, at the Elysee, Hungarian Prime
05:13Minister Viktor Orban has arrived for a special pre-summit supper with the French President. Now,
05:21this very high honor indeed being paid to Viktor Orban. His visit comes as US President Trump has
05:26ordered the suspension of US military aid deliveries to Kiev and a halt in intelligence
05:31sharing, which is a real blow to Ukraine's troops in trying to fend off that Russian invasion.
05:37The feeling in many European capitals is that Trump's America is pivoting away from its allies
05:42toward Moscow. Orban, of course, one of Trump's and Moscow's closest allies in the European Union,
05:47said a transatlantic rift of Russia's invasion of Ukraine became apparent over recent days.
05:52I think that's an understatement, isn't it? Macron has hatched a four-point plan, of course,
05:56to end the Ukraine war, but the main beneficiary from US actions over the past week is clearly
06:01Russia and Vladimir Putin. Let's go back to James Andre, who is observing matters for us at the
06:06Elysee. James, Viktor Orban then and Emmanuel Macron. I imagine that this will be a supper
06:12that involves a lot of talking as well.
06:16Yes, absolutely. Well, we saw Viktor Orban arrive just earlier on here and be greeted by Emmanuel
06:22Macron here with the full Republican Guard. This is a state dinner and this is obviously an honor
06:27that's being paid to Viktor Orban with a lot of things to discuss. As you know, Viktor Orban,
06:32this was just last week when the European Union decided to renew sanctions on Russia,
06:38threatened to use its veto power in order to avoid that happening. Viktor Orban has been
06:43quite clear about the fact that he is ready to use his position in the European Union to block
06:50the building or at least to slow down the creation of this European defense. And this, of course,
06:57is something that Emmanuel Macron needs to sit down and discuss with the Hungarian president.
07:01This is the point of this dinner, to get him on board, probably to try and convince him that he
07:05has more to win by staying allied to the European Union rather than pivoting towards Russia. Well,
07:12he's already an ally of Russia, but basically finding himself in this American Russia camp.
07:18So we'll see how he responds to this. This is also, of course, to prepare tomorrow's special
07:24summit, the European Union summit, where these first bricks of this renewed European defense
07:31need to be laid. And of course, the idea is to avoid Viktor Orban impeding that progress.
07:36James Andre at the Elysee Palace in Paris, the official residence of Emmanuel Macron,
07:40French president. James, thank you, as always, very much indeed.