By Raf Casert and Sylvie Corbet
European leaders sought to form a united front Monday at emergency talks in Paris, called after a U.S. diplomatic blitz on Ukraine which has thrown a once-solid alliance into turmoil and left the Europeans questioning the reliability of their key transatlantic partner.
Shortly before the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with U.S. President Donald Trump, but Macron’s office would not disclose details about the 20-minute discussion.
Leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the European Union met at the Elysee Palace for talks on Europe’s security quandary. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was also there.
Since last week, top U.S. officials from the Trump administration, on their first visit to Europe, left the impression that Washington was ready to embrace the Kremlin while it cold-shouldered many of its age-old European allies.
The U.S. to leave Europe out of the negotiating table
Gen. Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, underlined Monday that Europe has no place at the negotiating table.
“All their concerns will be known, and addressed as well,” Kellogg told reporters in Brussels, where he briefed the 31 U.S. allies in NATO, along with European Union officials, before heading to Kyiv for talks on Wednesday with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
“I don’t think it’s reasonable and feasible to have everybody sitting at the table. We know how that can turn out and that has been our point, is keeping it clean and fast as we can,” he said.
Kellogg’s remarks come after a flurry of speeches by Vice President JD Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth last week questioned both Europe’s security commitments and its fundamental democratic principles.
Macron, who has long championed a stronger European defense, said their stinging rebukes and threats of non-cooperation in the face of military danger felt like a shock to the system.
The tipping point came when Trump decided to upend years of U.S. policy by holding talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war.
Europeans stand by their support to Ukraine
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz told reporters a possible peace agreement with Russia cannot be forced on Ukraine from outside.
“We welcome the fact that talks are taking place, that peace is developing everywhere. But for us it must and is clear: This does not mean that peace can be dictated and that Ukraine must accept what is presented to it,” he insisted after he left the Elysee Palace, as the meeting was still ongoing.
“Negotiations are moving fast with Europe,” Zelenskyy said in a virtual news conference Monday in Kyiv, adding recent U.S. moves “accelerated everything,”
Zelenskyy said Macron had agreed to provide him with a briefing on the conclusions from the meeting in Paris.
A strong U.S. component, though, will remain essential for the foreseeable future since it will take many years before European nations can ratchet up defense production and integrate it into an effective force.
That U.S. bond also applies to dealing with war in Ukraine, said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “U.S. support will remain critical and a U.S. security guarantee is essential for a lasting peace, because only the U.S. can deter Putin from attacking again,” Starmer wrote in Monday’s Daily Telegraph.
Sending troops after a peace deal?
Starmer appears to be charting a “third way” in Europe’s shifting geopolitical landscape — aligning strategically with Trump while maintaining EU ties. Some analysts suggest this positioning could allow him to act as a bridge between Trump and Europe, potentially serving as a key messenger to the White House on his visit to Washington DC next week.
While many EU nations are still mulling whether to contribute troops to a potential force in Ukraine after a peace deal, Starmer said that the U.K. was “ready and willing to contribute to security guarantees to Ukraine by putting our own troops on the ground if necessary.
Macron last year refused to rule out sending Western troops into Ukraine if necessary.
“A ceasefire must not lead to Russian rearmament, which is followed by new Russian attacks,” warned Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen ahead of the Paris meeting.
Yet Scholz said it was too soon to talk about boots on the ground.
“It is completely premature and completely the wrong time to have this discussion now. I’m even a little irritated by these debates,” Scholz said. Peace talks “have not taken place and… Ukraine has not said yes and has not sat at the table.
“This is highly inappropriate, to put it bluntly and honestly: we don’t even know what the outcome will be,” he added.
European nations are bent on boosting Ukraine where they can and on increasing defense spending. However, even if there is a general consensus to move beyond the goal of spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense, it is hardly clear how to get to 3%.
Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said he plans to urge other leaders to invest more in defense as he was about to head to Paris. Poland spends more than 4% of its GDP on defense, more than any other NATO member.
Some EU nations’ criticism
Some of the EU nations balked at the thought of the restrictive Elysee meeting with only a few chosen leaders while others were left in the cold. For an uncomfortable number of decisions, the EU needs the backing of all 27 nations. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, a staunch ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has already threatened to use his veto on a number of occasions.
Slovenian President Nataša Pirc Musar said the selective list of invitees was proof that the EU member states are not treated equally. “This is not Europe that commands respect abroad. This is not the Europe that would be a serious partner to the North American ally,” she said.
Slovakia’s populist Prime Minister Robert Fico questioned the presence of top EU representatives at the meeting, noting that the EU has no right to decide about any deployment of foreign troops in a country.
AP
