French President Emmanuel Macron (C) walks with the American president elected Donald Trump (R) and the president of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy (L) after a meeting at the Palais Presidential d’Elysee in Paris on December 7, 2024.
Julien de Rosa | AFP | Getty images
Europe is in the running for a word to say in the peacetops of Russia-Ukraine fast after the United States during the weekend, fears that Brussels are absent from the higher level negotiations .
European leaders are gathered in Paris on Monday for an emergency summit, hastenly gathered by French President Emmanuel Macron after the hope of the involvement of Europe has become sour during the Munich security conference.
Washington and Moscow are about to launch discussions to end the Russian-Ukraine war of almost three years this week in Saudi Arabia, when US President Donald Trump’s best diplomat Marco Rubio sits on Tuesday with Russia Sergei Lavrov.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy confirmed on Monday that he would go to Riyadh on Wednesday, according to Reuters, while noting that Ukraine would not participate in the first talks between the United States and Russia. He added that a new direct meeting with Trump was likely to follow.
“Ukraine will not participate. Ukraine did not know anything about it,” he told journalists during a video briefing of the United Arab Emirates, where he was on a state visit. “Ukraine considers negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine as those who have no results.”
It comes after Trump said on Sunday that Zelenskyy would be involved in peace talks with Russia, dissipating contradictory remarks in recent days from US officials.
The EU and the United Kingdom, however, are It is unlikely to have a physical seat At the negotiation table – initially, as if to speak, the American presidential envoy for Ukraine and Russia Keith Kellogg said on Saturday.
“What we do not want to do is participate in a discussion in a large group,” he told a marginal event in Munich, noting that allied interests would rather be “taken into account”.
Russia Lavrov, on the other hand, weighed in confusion on Monday, saying: “I do not know what European countries are supposed to do during talks on Ukraine.”
Rather, the United States has asked European allies to fulfill a questionnaire describing the number of troops and capacities that they could deploy in Ukraine as security guarantee, according to in Reuters. Other questions include what security guarantees that Europe would consider a “sufficient deterrence for Russia while ensuring that this conflict ends with a lasting peace regulation”.
The head of the European Union foreign policy, Kaja Kallas, said on Saturday that a sustainable peace agreement not possible without involvement of Europe.
“For everything to work, he must have Ukrainians and Europeans as part of it, because Ukrainians and Europeans are those who must also implement the agreement here in Europe, so without us, no agreement would work, “she said Silvia Amaro of CNBC on the MSC key.
The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, on the other hand, Warned Friday This inability to guarantee “fair and lasting peace” for Ukraine “would weaken not only Europe, but it would also weaken the United States”.
Monday’s summit in Paris includes representatives of seven European countries, including German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also present, the British chief saying that he hoped to act as a conduit between Brussels and Washington when he should meet Trump next week.
Writing on Sunday in the telegraph, Starmer said that if necessary, he was ready to put British “Boots on the ground” In Ukraine to protect European security and convince Trump from the role of Europe in the guarantee of peace for kyiv.
“The United States wants peace to align exactly what we want,” said Starmer in Paris on Monday, according to Reuters, adding that the continent had to intensify his defense expenses – a long -standing reproach by President Trump.
NATO secretary general, Mark Rutte, confirmed on Saturday that the military alliance would try Increase defense expenditure targets When the members meet for a summit in June. Although it has not provided specific figure, it later said Pautico Paul McLeary that the figure could be “considerably more than 3%”.
