Macron, Starmer to visit Washington next week amid Trump-guided Ukraine talks, says NSA Mike Waltz

French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will visit Washington next week, US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on Wednesday.

The visit comes amid a series of meetings aimed at bringing an end to Russia’s war in Ukraine. Earlier this week, Russian and US officials met in Riyadh.

NSA Waltz mentioned this during an interview with Fox News when asked about the chances of reaching a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Waltz said, “We’re engaging on all sides, and then the next step is we’re going to put technical teams forward to start talking more details.”

The development comes after European leaders organised two emergency meetings this week in Paris with EU countries and Nato member states to discuss a united response to ongoing engagement between Russia and the US for a peace deal in the Ukraine war.

Earlier this week, Russian and US officials met in Saudi Arabia to discuss negotiations for peace in the ongoing war in Ukraine. However, the talks took place without the inclusion of Ukraine.

Previously, US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a telephonic conversation.

Since then, a war of words has started between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Trump.

Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” and warned that the Ukrainian leader “better move fast or he is not going to have a country left.”

However, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said he is open to sending British troops to Ukraine to support a peace deal. However, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz argued that it is “highly inappropriate” to discuss troop deployment before a peace plan is in place.