European leaders held an emergency meeting in Paris on Monday to align their position after the Trump administration said they would be excluded from talks with Russia to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine.
The gathering of several key European leaders aimed to address “the situation in Ukraine and security issues in Europe” by “bringing together all the partners interested in peace and security” in the region, French President Emmanuel Macron’s office said in a statement Sunday.
Shortly before Monday's meeting, Macron's office said he spoke with President Donald Trump, but it did not disclose details about the discussion.
The leaders of Germany, the U.K., Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the European Union met at Paris' Elysee Palace for the talks about the continent’s security quandary. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte also attended.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio is set to meet with Russian officials in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday in discussions that exclude Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who is in the neighboring United Arab Emirates on a scheduled trip to boost humanitarian support for Ukraine, officials said.
Over the weekend, Zelenskyy told NBC News’ Kristen Welker that he would “never accept any decisions between the United States and Russia about Ukraine,” adding there is not “any leader in the world who can really make a deal with Putin without us about us.”
And concerns have risen among European leaders that Trump is forging ahead with a peace deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin that could undermine Kyiv and broader European security after Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, suggested during the Munich Security Conference that Europe would not have a seat at the table for the peace talks.
But after the meeting in Paris, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said there must be a U.S. security commitment for European countries to send postwar peacekeeping forces to Ukraine, although he said it was too early to say how many British troops he would be willing to deploy.
“Europe must play its role, and I’m prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement, but there must be a U.S. backstop, because a U.S. security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again,” Starmer told reporters.
His Danish counterpart, Mette Frederiksen, also warned that a quick ceasefire deal would allow Russia to remobilize and attack Ukraine again or target another country in Europe. “Russia is threatening all of Europe now, unfortunately,” she told reporters.
Jean-Noël Barrot, France's minister of foreign affairs, also indicated Sunday that discussions were underway on the deployment of French, British and Polish troops — the countries possess three of Europe's biggest armies — to guarantee a future ceasefire in Ukraine.
Rubio, America's chief diplomat, sought to downplay Europe's concerns about being sidelined in talks about security in its backyard, saying in an interview with CBS News on Sunday that Ukraine and Europe would be part of any “real negotiations.”
After Trump's phone call with Putin last week, the president assured Zelenskyy that he also would have a seat at the table.
While Kyiv has received no invitation to Tuesday's talks in Riyadh, Zelenskyy said Monday that he plans to visit Saudi Arabia on Wednesday and that he expects more clarity on the date of a meeting with Trump after Kellogg visits Ukraine later this week.
