Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron has called for peace and respect following a heated clash between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House and warns that Europe can no longer rely on the United States for its security.

Macron called for “calm” between the two leaders in interviews with French media, but also to a dialogue about a possible European nuclear “shield” as the continent could no longer rely on the United States.

In the interviews he said everyone should “return to calm, respect … so we can move on … because what is at stake is too important”.

Friday’s series, which saw Zelensky ordered out of the White House, has raised fears in Europe over the US commitment to Ukraine’s fight against Russia’s invasion.

Macron said that any “liberation” in Ukraine was “not in his interests” as forcing Kyiv to “sign a ceasefire without security guarantees” would mean “its ability to deter Russia, China and others would evaporate the same day”.

Whether he would talk to Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, as he did in the early days of the war, Macron replied that he would not “exclude it” but would only do it “in the appropriate moment.”

The French president warned that if Putin was not stopped in Ukraine, “he would undoubtedly draw attention to Moldova and perhaps beyond Romania.”

Macrons Media Blitz came on the threshold of a meeting on the Ukraine war in London and gathered Zelensky with European allies considering how to respond to Trump’s apparent approach to the Kremlin.

Macron suggested a strategic dialogue with European countries that do not have nuclear weapons.

France and the UK are the only European countries with a nuclear arsenal.

“We have a shield, they don’t. And they can no longer depend on the American nuclear deterrent. We need a strategic dialogue with those who do not have it and that would make France stronger,” Macron told the Le Parisien newspaper.

He told the journal Du Dimanche Avis that it would take between five and ten years to build an autonomous European defense independently of NATO.

He also warned that if the United States were to enter into an agreement with Russia “without the Europeans around the table … it would be a breach of the alliance”.

“We are in favor of peace,” he insisted, “but not about a capitulation that takes place on the basis of a routine or abandonment of the Ukrainians.”