European nations pushed for involvement in discussions on the future of Ukraine on Wednesday, following U.S. President Donald Trump’s announcement that he and Russian President Vladimir Putin plan to meet to discuss an end to the war.
Britain, Germany, France, Poland, Italy, Spain, and the European Commission (EC) said that only a fair agreement with security guarantees would ensure lasting peace and an acceptable resolution to the conflict.
Ministers from the six nations and the EC met with Kyiv’s foreign minister in Paris, France, on Wednesday, after which they issued a joint statement saying: “Our shared objectives should be to put Ukraine in a position of strength. Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.
“Ukraine should be provided with strong security guarantees. A just and lasting peace in Ukraine is a necessary condition for a strong transatlantic security.”
The statement added that the Europeans were looking forward to discussing how to proceed with their allies in the United States.
The meeting was scheduled weeks ago with the aim of drawing up the continent’s collective strategy in Ukraine, discussing how to strengthen their allies in Kyiv, plans for future peace talks and their joint approach to talks with the Trump administration ahead of a security conference in Munich, Germany this weekend.
But the plans were thrown off kilter after U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said a return to Ukraine’s pre-2014 borders was unrealistic, and the Americans did not see NATO membership for Kyiv as part of a solution to the war.
Those comments were followed by the call between Trump and Putin, after which the U.S. president revealed Washington and Moscow had agreed to immediately initiate talks, something none of their European allies knew of ahead of time.
When asked if any European countries would be involved in peace talks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said: “I don’t have any European nations who are involved currently to read out for you.”
Thursday saw further comments from Europe’s defense ministers as they met for a NATO summit at the organizations’ headquarters in Brussels.
“There can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine. And Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks,” British Defense Secretary John Healey said.
His German counterpart Boris Pistorius added: “For me, it’s clear … that Europe must be involved in the negotiations—and I think that’s very easy to understand, particularly if Europe is supposed to play a central or the main role in the peace order.”
Pistorius added that the continent “will have to live directly” with the consequences of the peace, and therefore “it goes without saying that we must be part of the negotiations.”
France’s Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu issued an even more dire warning, calling into question the future of NATO itself.
He said: “To say that it’s the biggest and most robust alliance in history is true, historically speaking. But the real question is will that still be the case in 10 or 15 years,” he said, after the U.S.—by far NATO’s biggest and most powerful member—signaled that its security priorities lie elsewhere, including in Asia.
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, who is chairing Thursday’s meeting, said that whatever agreement is reached between Kyiv and Moscow, it is vital that the “peace deal is enduring, that Putin knows that this is the end, that he can never again try to capture a piece of Ukraine.”
Hegseth denied America undercut Europe and Ukraine with this launch of negotiations, saying: “There is no betrayal there. There is a recognition that the whole world and the United States are invested and interested in peace. A negotiated peace.”
