President Duda at Weimar Triangle summit: Ukraine is waiting for a clear signal regarding NATO membership

French President Emmanuel Macron welcomed German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish President Andrzej Duda in Paris on Monday (June 12) for a summit on providing assistance to Ukraine.

The three leaders will work on military and humanitarian assistance as part of the so-called 'Weimar Triangle,' a 30-year-old format comprising representatives from Germany, France, and Poland.

The most recent such meeting took place last February, on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

At a press conference after a meeting with Polish and German leaders, president Macron said that a long-anticipated Ukrainian counter-offensive against occupying Russian forces had started, and he promised more military aid to the Kyiv government. "We have done everything to help it," he said.

"We have intensified the delivery of ammunitions, weapons and armed vehicles ... We'll continue in coming days and weeks," said Macron, who in recent days said he had spoken with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy confirming the start of the counter-offensive.

Ukraine on Monday claimed new gains in the early phase of the counter-offensive, saying its forces recaptured seven villages from Russian troops along an approximately 100-km (60-mile) front in southeastern Ukraine.

The three-way meeting in Paris was meant to send a signal of unity between eastern and western Europe, after Warsaw took on a major logistical and diplomatic role in helping Ukraine, while often castigating German and French leaders for being too slow.

The French president added the meeting was proof that there was no division between "old" and "new" Europe, a distinction once made by the United States when eastern European countries refused to back France and Germany over the war in Iraq 20 years ago.

However, divisions emerged during the short question-and-answer session with journalists.

Both Macron and Scholz said they supported the migration deal agreed by EU ministers last week, in which EU countries unwilling to take in refugees at home would be asked to give a financial contribution to their hosting peers.

But Polish President Andrzej Duda said he was "skeptical".

"We took in those who needed help in Poland ... we helped, to be honest, we did not receive any particular help especially from EU institutions," he said.

"I hope that no institution in the EU will come up with an idea to punish us for the fact that while still having the perspective of more Ukrainian refugees arriving, we are sceptical about accepting migrants from other directions as well, because really we are sceptical. We think that we are fulfilling our European and human humanitarian responsibilies, we are implementing that and will continue to do so, but on common-sense principles and if someone punishes us, we will simply oppose it in a decisive way. That's all," Duda added

"Ukraine is waiting for a clear signal on a clear perspective for membership in the North Atlantic Alliance," the Polish president stressed.

"Equally, this is today the greatest expectation for the Ukrainian government, for Ukraine's soldiers, its defenders, and for Ukrainian society. This is unequivocally one of the most important tasks," he added.

"I hope that the upcoming NATO summit in Vilnius will bring good news for Kyiv that Ukraine's future NATO membership is clearly visible, that there is a light at the end of the tunnel, as I am told in Ukraine, which Ukrainians want to see at last when it comes to membership of NATO. It will appear thanks to the decisions we take in Vilnius," Duda assured.

Olof Scholz said an intensive debate on the issue was ongoing between Germany, France, the U.S. and their allies.

Asked whether Germany agreed Ukraine needed to be given security guarantees at a NATO summit in July, he said: "It's clear we need this and we need it in a very concrete way," he said.

"The invasion of Ukraine remains the key foreign policy issue of our time, and it will also be a central topic of our meeting today. Our position is clear: Germany, France and Poland stand closely by Ukraine's side. We support the country in defending itself politically, humanitarianly, financially and also with weapons against Russian aggression," he said.

The German chancellor also stressed that "240 to 250,000 more refugees have come to Germany from all over the world". "That is the highest number in the whole of Europe. By the way, of these additional refugees, 80% have not been registered, even though they should have been registered somewhere, because Germany has no external borders (outside of the European Union). That is the figure we are currently dealing with," Scholz added.

"That is why we have always supported a European policy based on solidarity and, like the French President, I am very impressed by the decision of the interior ministers. I believe that it is a good step forward towards dealing with this challenge in Europe in a spirit of solidarity. This is also necessary, because otherwise the pressure will be very great in the individual countries to question the freedoms we have today, the Schengen system, and to intensify border controls. And we saw during the Covid pandemic where that can lead," said the German leader.