France, Germany and Poland try to patch differences over Ukraine

The leaders of the three pivotal European powers informally known as the Weimar Triangle gathered to show strength and unity in the face of Russia’s war against Ukraine. Such was the intent, at least, of a hastily called summit that brought Emmanuel Macron, the French president, Olaf Scholz, the German chancellor, and Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, together in the German capital for an afternoon of talks on March 15th.The leaders partially succeeded in projecting a happy face. They took no questions after the meeting, but announced a list of agreements to boost support for Ukraine that suggested minor concessions on all sides. These included a pledge to procure vitally needed ammunition on world markets, rather than insisting, as France has in the past, on European sources only, though Mr Macron had already given ground on this in February. Germany and France also both appeared to have lessened some of their previous objections to using at least the interest from some €300bn ($327bn) of frozen Russian deposits in Europe to support Ukraine.