PARIS: France’s President Emmanuel Macron will host leaders from key European countries on Monday to discuss Ukraine war the continent’s security, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said, amid growing concerns over a shift in US priorities and its approach to end the Ukraine war.
US President Donald Trump held a phone call with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin this week and agreed to hold talks immediately to end the Ukraine war.
Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday Europe would not have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
The new US administration has also warned its NATO allies that Europe will no longer be its top security priority and it may shift forces as it switches focus to China.
“The president will bring together the main European countries tomorrow for discussions on European security,” Barrot told the France Inter radio broadcaster on Sunday, without saying which nations would participate.
The meeting in Paris on Monday afternoon was to include Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark and NATO chief Marc Rutte and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen, a European diplomatic source said as cited by AFP.
British media have said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected to attend.
The Kremlin has pushed for negotiations — set to kick off in Saudi Arabia in the coming days — to discuss not just the Ukraine war as it nears a third anniversary but also broader European security.
That has sparked fears among European nations that Putin could revive demands he floated prior to the Ukraine war aimed at limiting NATO forces in eastern Europe and US involvement on the continent.
Dozens of similar summits have shown Europe to be dithering, at times disunited and politically weak and struggling to come up with a cohesive plan to end the Ukraine war and deal with Russia, three years into Moscow’s invasion of its neighbour.
Six European diplomats said invites had gone at least to Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Denmark, which would represent Baltic and Scandinavian countries, the European Union leadership and the NATO Secretary General.
Creation of European army
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of a European army, arguing the continent could no longer count on Washington.
Zelensky said there should be “no decisions about Ukraine without Ukraine” or “about Europe without Europe”.
Barrot said: “Only the Ukrainians can decide to stop fighting and we will support them until they make that decision.”
The Ukrainians “will never stop as long as they are not sure that the peace that is suggested to them will be long-lasting,” he added.
“Who can provide the guarantees? It’s the Europeans.”
Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, on Saturday said Europe would not be directly involved in talks though it would still have an “input”.
Asked whether Europeans would be at the table, Kellogg responded: “I’m of the school of realism, I think that’s not going to happen.”
US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth has appeared to rule out Ukraine joining NATO or retaking all of its territory lost since 2014.
Finnish President Alexander Stubb on Sunday said that talks between the United States and Russia over the Ukraine war must not rewrite European security.
“There’s no way in which we should open the door for this Russian fantasy of a new, indivisible security order, where it can do spheres of interest,” he said.
Finland shares a 1,300-kilometre (800 mile) border with Russia.
