The president of France Emmanuel Macron admitted today that Paris should have paid more attention to eastern European countries when warning of Russian aggression ahead of the invasion of Ukraine.

Speaking at a security forum in Bratislava, Slovakia, Macron said there should be no division between “old” and “new” Europe, referring to the differing views between eastern and western European countries on issues like Russia.

“Some said you missed your chance to shut up. I think we also missed the opportunity to listen to you. Those times are over,” he said, to applause, in his speech at the GLOBSEC think tank. Macron was referring to a comment made in 2003 by then-French President Jacques Chirac, who said that Eastern European countries that had sided with the US and Britain in the Iraq war – unlike some Western European countries such as France and Germany – missed “a good chance to plug it”.

The statement shocked eastern European countries at the time and fueled the EU’s newest members’ mistrust of Paris, which resurfaced after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022. Countries such as Poland criticized Macron at the time for keeping open communication channels with Russian President Vladimir Putin or because he said that Russia should not be “humiliated” as part of international efforts to end the war.

Today, the French president also said that Europe should develop its own defense industry and not rely only on the US for protection. But he admitted that the US contribution, in terms of money and materials, has been crucial to building a credible front against Russia. “Let’s be grateful and say thank you to the USA. But will this government be here forever? For this, a European defense pillar within NATO is necessary,” he stressed.

The US presidential election will be held in November 2024 and Donald Trump is likely to be a candidate again. When he was president he declared that European countries should pay more for their defense.

Macron said Russia has registered clear failures in the war in Ukraine, which included Finland’s accession to NATO and its loss of credibility on the international stage. “The end of the war is still far away, but one thing is clear: Ukraine will not be conquered. We see that what was supposed to be a “special operation” is already a geopolitical failure,” he concluded.