 "French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer look on upon their arrival on the Place de l'Etoile to attend commemorations marking the 106th anniversary of the November 11, 1918, Armistice, ending World War I, in Paris, Monday, Nov. 11, 2024. File Image: AP")
As US President Donald Trump excluded European leaders from the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom Keir Starmer joined hands with French President Emmanuel Macron to convene an emergency meeting to discuss the ongoing war. The meeting was conducted at a time when concern grew over Trump’s attempts to seize control of the Ukraine peace process.
While speaking at the Munich security conference, Poland’s foreign minister, Radosław Sikorski, lauded the French leader for hosting the meeting in Paris. “President Trump has a method of operating which the Russians call razvedka boyem – reconnaissance through the battle: you push and you see what happens, and then you change your position … and we need to respond,” the Polish minister said.
According to The Guardian, the meeting is likely to be held on Monday. The leaders are likely to discuss US efforts to exclude European leaders from the peace talks and the position the continent should adopt on Ukraine’s future membership of NATO. Downing Street confirmed on Saturday that Starmer would attend the meeting.
The British premier is expected to relay the messages from the meeting to Washington this week when he is scheduled to meet the US President. The No. 10 officials told The Guardian that they believed those invited to Paris by Macron would be the Nato secretary general, Mark Rutte, and the leaders of Germany, Italy, the UK and Poland.
Macron rushes to unite European leaders
Macron is trying to rush to unite European leaders behind a joint response to Trump’s effort to take control of the Russia-Ukraine peace talks. While addressing the matter at the conference, Starmer made it clear that he wants to keep the US and Europe together concerning their position on the war.
“This is a once-in-a-generation moment for our national security where we engage with the reality of the world today and the threat we face from Russia. It’s clear Europe must take a greater role in NATO as we work with the United States to secure Ukraine’s future and face down the threat we face from Russia,” the British premier said.
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View All“The UK will work to ensure we keep the US and Europe together. We cannot allow any divisions in the alliance to distract from the external enemies we face,” he added. While the European leaders are expected to meet in Paris, Russian and American officials are scheduled to meet in Saudi Arabia this week. Both nations would try to map out what they intend to be the peace process in the war, which is about to hit its third anniversary.
US excludes Europe
The anxiety among the European leaders intensified on Saturday when Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, said that it is not realistic for the European leaders to get involved in the ongoing talks. “It may be like chalk on the blackboard, it may grate a little bit, but I am telling you something that is really quite honest,” said Kellogg at the Munich conference.
“And to my European friends, I would say: ‘Get into the debate, not by complaining that you might, yes or no, be at the table, but by coming up with concrete proposals, ideas, ramp up [defence] spending’," Kellogg claimed that he is working on “Trump time”, and an agreement was expected in weeks and months. Meanwhile, Washington has also sent a letter to the European states, asking what troops they are willing to supply for a peacekeeping force which will be deployed in the region.
One European diplomat close to the matter told The Guaridan that “it appears Europe is going to be asked to police a deal that it had no direct hand in negotiating. In the meantime, Donald Trump is seeking to take 50 per cent control of Ukraine’s rare minerals."
Annalena Baerbock, the German foreign minister, said the world was experiencing a “moment of truth” as possible negotiations to end the war in Ukraine approached. “Everyone in the world has to decide whether they are on the side of the free world or on the side of those who are fighting against the free world," she averred. The German diplomat maintained that Europe has a right to be present at the talks, adding that there can be “no long-term peace if there is no European peace”.