Key points
- Kaja Kallas will hold talks with her counterpart Marco Rubio
- French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington
- British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to follow
ISLAMABAD: European Union (EU) foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she will visit the United States on Tuesday for talks with her counterpart Marco Rubio as Washington pushes to end Russia’s war in Ukraine.
“You can discuss whatever you want with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin, but if it comes to Europe or Ukraine, then Ukraine and Europe also have to agree to this deal,” Kallas told journalists Monday at a meeting of EU foreign ministers, according to AFP.
According to Politico, European leaders will seek to salvage what’s left of their traditional alliances on Monday with a two-pronged strategy aimed at keeping US President Donald Trump on their side and saving Ukraine from being sacrificed to Vladimir Putin.
“A huge strategic mistake”
After a week spent reeling from one shock statement after another from the US administration, European governments are trying to regain the initiative.
French President Emmanuel Macron is in Washington for talks with Trump on Monday, where he will argue that letting Putin win in Ukraine would be “a huge strategic mistake,” he said in comments ahead of the trip.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is set to follow with a White House meeting on Thursday, after saying the UK would be “ready and willing” to put UK troops on the ground in Ukraine as a security guarantee in a peace deal.
The third anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on Monday may help focus minds as Moscow’s forces continue to make advances on the battlefield and the US pushes for a swift end to the war.
