He doesn't make the trip for no reason.
Volodymyr Zelensky is expected in Paris on Friday, and will be received by Emmanuel Macron at the Élysée.
Together, the two heads of state will sign a bilateral security agreement between France and Ukraine, as the country soon enters its third year of war against Russia.
But what does such an agreement consist of?
“These bilateral defense agreements are classic conventional tools,” we can read in a report from the Affairs Committee dating from 2019, which then looked into a bilateral defense agreement between France and Cyprus.
“They are intended to open up areas of cooperation with the armed forces of another state.”
Military cooperation
“Concretely, they list a series of areas open to cooperation such as armament or military training”, detailed the deputy LR Michel Herbillon, rapporteur of the commission.
“They often contain a clause that allows both parties to develop their cooperation beyond what is provided for in the agreement.”
The bilateral security agreement about to be signed with Ukraine follows “the commitments which had been made in G7 format on the sidelines of the NATO Summit in Vilnius in July 2023”, recalled the Élysée on Thursday when announcing the arrival of Volodymyr Zelensky.
Thus, with this agreement, France should therefore support Ukraine, in difficulty on the front.
In particular, it could provide it with modern military equipment, interoperable with that of NATO.
Training of Ukrainian soldiers or the strengthening of the Ukrainian defense industry could also see the light of day with these new commitments.
A risk of France-Russia escalation?
On January 12, the United Kingdom was the first power to sign an agreement of this type with Ukraine, promising 2.5 billion pounds sterling in military aid.
These agreements are necessarily frowned upon by the Kremlin, which had already judged in July that such guarantees would “undermine Russia’s security”.
Could the signature expected on Friday drag France into a war with Moscow?
“No,” assured Stéphane Séjourné in our columns last January, when he had just been newly appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs.
“Putin has already gone so far in violating international law that I don’t think a bilateral support agreement could change anything in the nature of the conflict and our involvement,” he explained.
It remains to be seen whether time will prove him right.