French President Emmanuel Macron has said he and US President Donald Trump discussed diplomatic solutions to get more ships through the Strait of Hormuz without first needing a comprehensive agreement.
The two leaders met in New York on September 21, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. Macron described the talks as very good and very constructive, according to Reuters.
Speaking to reporters afterwards, he said several options would be worked on in the coming hours. They could ease the passage of more container ships and oil tankers without an overall settlement being in place.
Traffic through the strait remains heavily restricted by Iran, while a US naval blockade of Iranian ports is still in force. Washington lifted the blockade after the memorandum of understanding signed with Tehran at Versailles in June but reimposed it in mid-July as attacks on shipping resumed.
Macron said the pair also discussed the Red Sea, where Houthi rebel advances along Yemen’s coast near the Bab el-Mandeb strait have threatened shipping. He said the aim was to better secure oil export points there without confrontation or escalation.
A long part of the conversation concerned the Ukraine War. Macron said Kyiv needed help more quickly and more intensively with interceptors, which he called the key issue from a defensive point of view.
The two also discussed a possible moratorium on strikes against energy facilities, which Russia and Ukraine have traded for months. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said Kyiv would halt deep strikes on Russian oil sites if the US and its partners could guarantee a verifiable, reciprocal end to Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy grid, according to the Kyiv Post.
Trump stepped up pressure the same day, writing on Truth Social: “This ridiculous and never ending War with Ukraine must be ended.”
Macron said he had not raised with Trump the security, energy and defence partnership France has struck with Canada.
Later that evening Macron held talks with Zelensky. He said on X that Russian strikes on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure threatened to leave millions of families without heating and electricity.
He said France would stand with Ukraine through the winter and that the G7’s energy format, which Paris pledged on September 18 to convene in the coming weeks, would also be mobilised. He announced a contract for the delivery of radars and the supply of interceptors to reinforce Ukrainian air defences.
Macron said he backed an energy truce and a moratorium in the Black Sea. He said both would be central to negotiations that should resume and lead to a just and lasting peace.
