A Shift in France’s Policies Towards Ukraine and Russia? Implications for Central Europe

At the NATO Summit in Vilnius this July, France surprised many by aligning more closely with Prague and Warsaw on Ukraine's NATO membership. This is a clear departure from the traditional stance of Berlin and Washington.

What is driving this sudden change? In this seminar, we will explore France's newfound support for EU and NATO expansion to Ukraine, its bold supply of military aid to Kyiv, and its vocal opposition to Russia's imperial ambitions. This policy shift has implications for Central Europe, not just because it translates into greater convergence of strategic outlooks but also because it is intertwined with a new French diplomatic engagement towards the region incarnated by President Macron’s Bratislava speech. What are the drivers, modalities and extent of this shift? Does it amount to a change of policy or merely of rhetoric? Can it trigger a new dynamic in European geopolitics and France-Central Europe relations?

Petr Tůma, a visiting fellow at Atlantic Council will join as a discussant.

This event is chaired by the IIR Senior Researcher Petr Kratochvíl.

The research is based on a Think Visegrad fellowship funded by V4 collaboration.

To participate please register below.

Dr David Cadier is currently a 'Think Visegrad' Visiting Fellow at the Institute of International Relations Prague. Beyond this short research stay sponsored by the International Visegrad Fund, he is an Assistant Professor of International Relations at the University of Groningen (Netherlands), an Associate researcher at Sciences Po's Center for International Studies (CERI) in Paris and a Visiting Professor at the College of Europe in Bruges.

Petr Tůma is a visiting fellow at the Atlantic Council’s Europe Center. He is a Czech career diplomat with an expertise on Europe, Middle East and transatlantic relations.