Catherine Field: France Correspondent on the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations in Switzerland

Counter-proposals to the US-peace plan for Russia's invasion of Ukraine are emerging as European, US, and Ukrainian officials hash out discussions in Switzerland. 

Russia's backing the 28-point plan that'd include Ukraine ceding territory and ditching efforts to join NATO. 

European leaders have criticised the plan, which is widely considered favourable to Russia. 

France Correspondent Catherine Field told Mike Hosking that now that Europe is footing most of the bill for Ukraine, it actually has a stronger voice in the negotiations.  

She says they’re telling everyone to calm down and return to the drawing board, as everyone knows Russia won’t agree to the adjusted 19 point plan.  

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Catherine Field, morning to you, Good morning money. Your observation.
Does Paris do Christmas? Will?

Speaker 2 (00:06):
Ah? Does it? Brilliantly? Mike, Ah, you should be here.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
Well, I've never been to Paris at Christmas time, but
I have been to London. London v Paris. Who would
you call?

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Come on, there's a loaded question, of course, I'm going
to say.

Speaker 1 (00:18):
Paris, fair enough. So anyway, where are we at? Rubio's
in town has been and they're all there with Coffin
and co. So we're down to what nineteen points? Where
does this go?

Speaker 2 (00:28):
At the moment we really don't know if it's going
to go anywhere. Here's the problem, Mike. The proposal to
end the conflict in Ukraine seems to be roundly rejected.
It's been put forward as a proposal that came from
the White House. Then it seems to have come from
the State Apartment then, and anyway, it seemed that it

(00:49):
was really Russia's proposal that was a pretty much a
take it or leave it along the lines of an
agreement which they put forward several years ago. Here's the
problem for Ukraine. Even if they agreed to this twenty
eight point plan, which is now nineteen points. It would
leave Ukraine with an unjust piece, which would then of

(01:11):
course not be a lasting peace because the plan as
it was put forward, restricted Ukraine from the size of
its own forces, restricted from joining NATO, and of course
it would lose large parts of its territory. So it
really wasn't going anywhere. The problem now is everyone's gone home.
We're still waiting to hear what the Ukrainians are going

(01:31):
to respond to it, how the Americans are going to respond,
And of course the Europeans they were completely blindsided by
this new plan that came forward. They scrambled to find
out what was going on. They have now pretty much
liked Ukraine. They've had to start talking nice again to
the US to try and bring them back from the

(01:54):
seemingly hardline peace Plan proposals. So we've had the Germans,
the French, and the United Kingdom the Brits saying this
piece plan cannot go anywhere. It borders, can't be changed
by force, you can't leave Ukraine week and anyway. At
the end of the day, Mike, and this has been
the interesting thing is that now that Europe is actually

(02:16):
footing most of the bill for Ukraine, it has a
stronger voice in these negotiations. So what they're saying is
calm down, everyone, go back to the drawing board, because
even with these nineteen points, everyone knows that the Russians
aren't going to agree to it.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
Now this thing I alluded to a moment ago. Did
he steal this from Germany? So Germany is looking to
boost the ab standing army. They're going to have military service.
Is this the same thing that Macron's doing?

Speaker 2 (02:40):
It is? Nakron sort of talked about it earlier this year, Mike.
What he wants to do is pretty much along the
same lines, not a compulsory mountry service, but a voluntary
service aimed at people aged eighteen years and over. Instead
of doing this sort of three or four years, it
could look at some why doing ten months service. Also,

(03:04):
some people have even called it a sort of summer job.
If you like, you go into the military, you train,
you get paid. You know, they really do have to
do something because they've got to get to their army
up to what some sort of ten by twenty thirty
reservers fifty twenty thirty five. You know, this sort of

(03:24):
does reflect what's going on in Europe's fears of what
Russia is up to. But it got something of a
jolt in the armor, if you like, Mike, last week
when the most senior military chief in France warned French
mayors that France should be ready to lose its children
in the case of a dispute with Russia in the

(03:45):
next ten fifteen years. So that's really got everyone thinking, Wow,
this is really much more important than we thought it was,
So Macron may well adjust this voluntary service a bit, Mike.
One of the theories that coming up with is that they
would be used for duties inside France, so would take
over said duties of patrolling powers streets during terrorist alerts,

(04:08):
things like that, as opposed to having them serve abroad.

Speaker 1 (04:11):
All right, Always blush, Cathery and catch up next week
Catherine the field in France.

Speaker 2 (04:15):
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