The president of the United States, Donald Trumpand his counterpart from France, Emmanuel Macronthey have spoken on Monday by phone shortly before the latter receives in the Elysium to a battery of European leaders who have been summoned urgently to treat Ukraine’s situation in the last diplomatic efforts of Washington, according to sources from the French presidency. To the Paris meeting In addition to Macron, the heads of government of Spain, Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, the Netherlands and Denmark. Those responsible for the European commission and council, Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa, respectively, and NATO general secretary, Mark Rutte will also attend.
At the same time, the governments of the United States and Russia have cited Tuesday in Saudi Arabia for a first direct contact after diplomatic efforts launched by Trump. The president of Ukraine, Volodimir Zelenski, has already warned that kyiv will not be present and, therefore, will not comply with any direct conclusion exit from this meeting.
The message that Macron wanted to move to Trump is that Europe wants peace: “Not any peace: it must be a peace that does not undermine the fundamental principles that we defend,” said Spanish government sources on the message transmitted. For Spain, the voice of Europe must be heard, it must take into account the principles on which the international order is based and where the aggressor is not recognized in front of the assaulted. Moncloa sources, consider that the moment of peace must be chosen by Ukraine.
Table issues
On the table in Paris they are fundamental issues such as the role of Europe in negotiations with Russia about Ukraine, and also its role in the subsequent maintenance of peace, with guarantees for Ukraine and for European security. In that regard, the sending of European troops in the peace mission will be one of the main factors to be discussed. It is a measure to which leaders such as Starmer have already been arranged, and what other countries, such as Sweden, Belgium or Netherlands either. But not all attendees share that position, such as Poland, border with Ukraine and Belarus. His prime minister advanced today before leaving for Paris that Warsovia does not consider sending soldiers to Ukraine. Other issues of continental draft, such as the Common European Defense Strategy and the need to increase the defense budget of the continent, also weigh on the backdrop.
Reduced format
The reduced format, an “informal” meeting according to sources of the Elysee when announcing the meeting, responds to the need for agility -more than that would imply a meeting of the 27, with countries closer to Moscow in between, such as Hungary – And also that these are preliminary conversations. But the urgency also shows the need for reaction of a Europe to which they have caught the rapidity of the approaches between Washington and Moscow and, above all, the clarity with which the Trump administration has left the old continent on the sidelines of the Discussions That intention was clear last week at the Munich Security Conference and will be staged again in a meeting between the heads of the diplomacy of Russia, Serguéi Lavrov, and the United States, Marco Rubio, which will take place in Riyadh. A meeting is also prepared between the presidents of the two powers, Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump, and all this without inviting the table to Ukraine at the time.
Parallel meeting
Its president, Volodimir Zelenski, declared on Monday from the United Arab Emirates that he was not informed of the meeting between Lavrov and Rubio and made it clear that his country will not recognize any conclusion the result of those contacts. “Ukraine will not accept it. Ukraine did not know any of this. And Ukraine considers null the results of any negotiation on Ukraine without Ukraine. We cannot recognize any agreement on us without us,” Zelenski warned. Despite the tense of the situation, from Paris it has been sought to subtract some importance to the informal meeting -at which they do not attend European countries closer to Moscow, such as Hungary -, stating that this kind of meetings “are frequent and should not be Dramatized, “in the words of Gallic Foreign Minister, Jean-Noël Barrot.
