PARIS (AFP) – European leaders at an emergency meeting in Paris Monday were divided on how to respond to US President Donald Trump’s dramatic policy shift on Ukraine, with France and Britain pushing for security guarantees and Germany bristling at suggestions troops could be deployed.
With European policymakers still reeling from US Vice President JD Vance’s withering attack on the European Union at an annual security conference in Munich, key leaders attended the meeting at the Elysee Palace called at the last minute by President Emmanuel Macron.
European leaders worry that Trump will freeze them out of peace talks with Moscow that will also exclude Kyiv, fears that were heightened by a rare meeting expected Tuesday in Saudi Arabia between the top diplomats from Russia and the United States.
European leaders in Paris weighed measures including ramping up defence spending to be less dependent on the US, providing security guarantees to Kyiv, and sending troops to Ukraine as peacekeepers in the event of a ceasefire.
Macron held telephone talks with both Trump and Zelensky, he said early Tuesday, calling for “strong and credible security guarantees” for Ukraine so that a peace deal does not end up like the 2014 and 2015 Minsk agreements that failed to resolve the conflict in eastern Ukraine.
Zelensky said he and Macron shared a “common vision” for how to achieve peace, including that “security guarantees must be robust and reliable,” he said on social media after the call.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said he was “prepared to consider committing British forces on the ground alongside others if there is a lasting peace agreement.”
But he insisted Washington had to be involved, saying “there must be a US backstop, because a US security guarantee is the only way to effectively deter Russia from attacking Ukraine again.”
But after the talks, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said that any debate on sending peacekeepers to Ukraine was “completely premature” and “highly inappropriate” while the war is ongoing.
‘Ready and willing’
There was no joint statement or major announcements after the Paris meeting, which participants said needed to be left for forums like the EU or NATO.
“Everyone at this meeting is aware that transatlantic relations, the NATO alliance and our friendship with the United States have entered a new phase. We all see that,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
EU chief Ursula von der Leyen said “Ukraine deserves peace through strength” and this should be “respectful of its independence, sovereignty, territorial integrity, with strong security guarantees”.
“Ready and willing,” was how NATO chief Mark Rutte described Europe’s position after the meeting. “The details will need to be decided but the commitment is clear.”
Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her government was “open-minded” on the issue of troops but warned a key question was if the United States was “going to back up on Europe” if troops were sent.
Russia is “threatening all Europe now”, she added, warning the US against attempts to agree a “fast” ceasefire that would give Russia the chance to “to mobilise again, attack Ukraine or another country in Europe”.
Macron has described Trump’s return for a second term in the White House as an “electroshock” but also warned against any peace deal that could amount to “capitulation”.
French newspaper Le Monde said the rupture between Europe and the United States was “historic”, but added that Europe had to show its capacity to ensure its own defence.
“European blindness came to an abrupt end in Munich. From now on, the security of the continent depends essentially on the Europeans themselves, and on their ability to maintain their unity,” it added.
The Paris talks come as Washington said that Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz and Special Envoy Steve Witkoff on Tuesday would meet a Russian delegation including Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Riyadh, ahead of a future meeting between Trump and Putin in the Saudi capital.
“There must be no division of security and responsibility between Europe and the United States,” Scholz said in Paris.
“NATO is based on us always acting together and sharing the risk, thereby guaranteeing our security. This must not be called into question.”
