What strategy to adopt in the face of Russia’s nuclear threats in Ukraine? Should we dramatize, be silent or threaten? Leaders of Western nuclear-armed powers have spoken publicly. Each with different answers.
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For Emmanuel Macron, for example, “the less we talk about it, the less the threat is raised and the more credible we are.” The tone of the French president is therefore rather reassuring. However, his words contrast with those of his American counterpart. Last week, Joe Biden had indeed used the term “Armageddon”, a nuclear apocalypse.
On the European side, the tone was also more worrying. “Any nuclear attack on Ukraine will lead to a response, not a nuclear response, but a military response so powerful” from the West “that the Russian army will be annihilated”, declared the head of European diplomacy Josep Borrel.
On the side of the United Kingdom, while she was not yet in office, Prime Minister Liz Truss had clearly brandished the nuclear response. Today, she remains firm but cautious.
Upcoming negotiations?
For Michel Duclos, former French ambassador to Syria and Switzerland, behind this disturbing cacophony, “there is implicitly a small opening on negotiations.” As he explains at the microphone of Forum, the current crisis is indeed reminiscent of that of the missiles in Cuba in 1962. A crisis which had precisely ended with a “deal” between Americans and Soviets.
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