French President Emmanuel Macron interrupted US President Donald Trump during a speech at the White House while saying "Europe is lending money to Ukraine. They will get their money back."
Placing his hand on Trump's, Macron corrected him:
"No, actually, to be honest, we paid for 60 percent of the total effort: it was through, like the US, loans, guarantees, grants. We provided the real money, to be clear."
Trump and Macron have shown clear differences in their approach to Ukraine, revealing disagreements between the US and Europe over Trump's push to quickly reach a ceasefire agreement with Russia.
Trump and Macron have displayed a friendly relationship based on years of good relations. However, Macron made it clear that he disagreed with Trump on some key issues as they spoke on the third anniversary of Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
Trump refused to call Russian President Vladimir Putin a dictator, after calling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a dictator last week. Macron, on the other hand, said it was clear that Russia was the "aggressor" in this conflict, a topic on which Trump had been hesitant last week.
"President Putin has violated the peace," Macron said at a joint press conference with Trump.
Trump expressed his desire for a quick ceasefire and said he was trying to broker a deal between Ukraine and Russia. He also said he might travel to Moscow to meet with Putin once an agreement is reached.
Macron, on the other hand, called for a more considered approach, starting with a ceasefire and then a peace agreement that would include security guarantees.
"We want peace, he wants peace. We want peace to come quickly, but we don't want a weak agreement," Macron told reporters.
Any peace agreement, he added, must be "assessed, verified and confirmed."
However, the two leaders agreed to deploy a European peacekeeping force once a peace agreement is finally reached.
"They would not be along the front line. They would not participate in any conflict. Their role would be to ensure that peace is respected," Macron said earlier during a meeting with Trump.
Trump said he accepts this concept, as does Putin.
"Yes, he will accept it," Trump said of Putin's stance on the peacekeeping force. "I specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it."
Macron, the first European leader to visit Trump since he returned to power a month ago, called his talks with Trump a "turning point" in the push for a more unified approach.
Macron is trying to capitalize on the rapport he built with Trump during their first terms as presidents. The French leader has shown how he has managed to deal with the unpredictable Trump.
During one moment in the Oval Office meeting, Macron touched Trump's hand and gently corrected him when Trump claimed that Europe delivered all of its aid as loans.
Trump has talked about progress in reaching an agreement to share revenues from Ukrainian minerals as a way to offset the cost of weapons sent to Ukraine by the previous Biden administration. He said he expects Zelensky to come to the United States this week or next week to finalize the agreement.
Trump and his team are negotiating a deal with Ukraine to share mineral revenues in order to recover some of the money the previous Biden administration sent to Kiev in the form of weapons to defend against Russia.
Zelensky last week rejected US demands that Ukraine hand over $500 billion worth of mineral wealth as repayment for war aid, saying the US had not delivered anywhere near that amount so far and had not proposed specific security guarantees in the agreement.
Asked whether it was possible that Ukraine could be forced to cede some territory to Russia, Trump replied: "Well, we'll see." Macron insisted that any deal must include preserving Ukrainian sovereignty.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is due to visit Trump later this week, as concerns grow in Europe over Trump's increasingly hardline stance on Ukraine and his overt diplomatic signals to Moscow over the conflict.
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