Macron discusses two key issues with Trump: Ukraine and the Strait of Hormuz

Paris. On Monday evening, Emmanuel Macron landed in New York with a clear objective: to persuade Donald Trump to remain engaged with the two issues that currently weigh most heavily on European security and the global economy – the energy crisis caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz and the war in Ukraine.

On the eve of the United Nations General Assembly, the President of the French Republic met his American counterpart for a forty-five-minute meeting held on the 66th floor of Trump Tower. During the meeting, he reiterated to the tycoon the importance of stepping up aid to Ukraine, increasing pressure on Russia, and also finding a peaceful solution in the Middle East. The starting point was not straightforward: according to the Financial Times, on Sunday Trump had once again urged Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to halt attacks on Russian refineries. But the outcome, as Macron himself told journalists, was a “very positive and constructive” discussion, which is said to have brought the White House closer to his positions. “It enabled us to address both the crisis in the Near and Middle East and the desire to do everything possible to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and unblock the flow of goods through various solutions,” Macron said.

The two heads of state also discussed how to “ensure greater security” for oil transport routes in the Red Sea and the “need to help our Ukrainian friends even more swiftly and with greater force in terms of interceptors”, the French president emphasised. Macron proposed to Trump that the Hormuz issue be separated from other disputes between Washington and Tehran, starting with the nuclear issue, as confirmed by a diplomatic source to AFP. “France wishes to work with the United States and its partners on a UN Security Council resolution guaranteeing freedom of navigation” in the Strait of Hormuz, the source explained, without providing specific dates for the tabling of the resolution. The strategy of the Élysée Palace’s occupant, alongside the resolution of the Hormuz issue, is to diversify supply sources. In this regard, Paris is looking to the Red Sea and says it is ready to help secure the energy infrastructure at the port of Yanbu, on the west coast of Saudi Arabia, and the East-West oil pipeline – a vital export route for Saudi crude oil – which have been targeted by the Houthis, the Iran-backed Yemeni rebels, and by Iranian drones. The diplomatic source quoted by AFP emphasised the “exclusively defensive” nature of any potential French operation: the aim is to protect the infrastructure necessary to keep open one of the few alternative routes for the export of Saudi oil.

Ukraine was the other key topic of discussion between Macron and Trump. The French President put forward a proposal for a ‘moratorium’, that is, a mutual suspension of deep-strike attacks on energy and civilian infrastructure. The idea is that Russia and Ukraine should simultaneously halt operations against the facilities that are fuelling the energy crisis and directly affecting the population. The moratorium proposal also has a practical dimension: reducing attacks on infrastructure for a few months could ease the pressure on Ukraine’s air defence, particularly on the Patriot missiles, which are in limited supply. The United States, having used up much of its ammunition in the war in Iran, is no longer supplying it to Kyiv. Following Trump’s lead, Macron took the proposal for a moratorium directly to Zelensky, whom he met in New York late in the evening. The Ukrainian president, in a message on X, said he was open to de-escalation, but called for energy sites, critical infrastructure and Ukrainian exports to cease being Russian targets as well. For Kyiv, the principle remains that of reciprocity.