European powers, including Britain, France and Germany, said they need to be part of any future negotiations with the fate of Ukraine, emphasizing that a fair agreement with security guarantees will ensure lasting peace.
“Our shared goals should put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe should be part of any negotiation,” seven European countries and the European Commission were told in a joint statement after a Foreign minister meeting in Paris.
“Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A fair and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security,” the statement said, adding that European powers are expected to be Discuss the way early with their allies in America.
The meeting took place after US president Donald Trump said he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and was ready to get the pair immediately starting the end of the war in Ukraine.
The rapid development remembers Europe, with Putin and Trump appearing to regulate the future of the continent security with the leaders of European leaders themselves. US Secretary of Defense Pete HegSeth was due to meet twelve -two NATO ministers in Brussels on Thursday, after meeting a group of Ukraine contact with Defense Ministers in Brussels on Wednesday.
“There is no just and lasting peace in Ukraine without European participation,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said at a meeting of ministers from France, Britain, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain, Ukraine and European Commission On Wednesday.
The Annalena Baerbock of Germany and the Jose Manuel Albares Bueno of Spain both told the meeting that no decision in Ukraine could be made “without Ukraine” and called on EU countries to show unity on this question.
Albares Bueno added: “We want peace for Ukraine but we want an unfair war to end in a fair peace.”
Meanwhile, Poland’s foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski said the “ongoing cooperation with the US” was a topic of discussion at the meeting. “There is no better guarantee for the security of our continent than to closely cooperation with the transatlantic,” Sikorski said.
When asked if any European countries were involved in peace talks, the White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “I have no European countries involved in the current read for you.”
The Paris Meeting, which was scheduled weeks ago, aimed at describing Bloc’s defense strategy, discussed how to strengthen Ukraine, planning for future peace talks and discussing how to approach the Talks to the US administration when they met at a security conference in Munich this weekend.
But it was derailed after Hegsetth delivered the worst public statements from the Trump administration in its approach to the nearly three-year war between Ukraine and Russia at a meeting at Ukraine’s international backers in Brussels on Wednesday.
He said a return to the pre-2014 border of Ukraine was unrealistic and the US did not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a war solution. “The pursuit of this unknown goal will only continue in the war and cause more suffering,” he said.
Hegsetth’s comments were followed by a call between Trump and Putin, after which Trump said their teams went up to start the negotiations immediately. European powers have not yet known the call before and is surprised by the bloom of Hegsetth’s position, Diplomats said.
Having decided on NATO membership for Ukraine, Hegsetth said peace could be secured by “European and non-European troops”, which he emphasized does not come from the US.
Any British or European trooper who is deployed in Ukraine is not covered by a NATO mission or a guarantee of Alliance’s Article 5, Hegsetth added, which means that they will be reliable with the help from participating states.
UK Secretary of Defense John Healey said London had heard of the “Call of European countries to climb. We and we were.” After a bilateral meeting with Hegetth earlier in the day, he announced that the UK will spend £ 4.5bn on military assistance for Ukraine this year, The Times reported.
Earlier this week, Zelenskyy told the Guardian that Europe did not offer Kyiv’s elastic security guarantee without US involvement. “Security guarantees without America are not true,” he said.
A multinational force of restraint based in Ukraine after a ceasefire must be 100,000 to 150,000 strong, Zelenskyy said, even though it was smaller than the 600,000-plus Russian troops in the occupied Ukraine.
“Europe cannot put a force like this today,” a senior European diplomat told The Guardian. “But we can’t force the US [to commit troops]. So we must accept it and find out what we can do. “
Another Europe’s older diplomat called the US position that Hegetth was outlined by a premature surrender, asking what was left to organize. People also said that the willingness to offer concessions from Ukraine would encourage Russia to request more of the upcoming negotiations.
