Leaders from Italy, Poland, Spain, Ukraine, France, Germany and the EU pose for a gaggle picture throughout a gathering on European protection and Ukraine, on the Quai d’Orsay in Paris Wednesday, Feb. 12.
Christophe Petit-Tesson/Pool EPA
conceal caption
toggle caption
Christophe Petit-Tesson/Pool EPA
PARIS — As U.S. and Russian envoys put together to start talks in Saudi Arabia on ending the warfare in Ukraine, European leaders have referred to as an emergency assembly in Paris after being reduce out of the peace negotiations.
The gulf between the U.S. and Europe on the Ukraine warfare and safety points crystallized for Europeans this previous weekend on the Munich Safety Convention, says Elie Tenenbaum, a safety knowledgeable on the French Institute for Worldwide Relations.
“Their worst nightmare has come true,” he says. “They see that the Trump administration is going to bypass them and try to strong-arm Ukraine in negotiating a deal with Russia to end the war.”
Tenenbaum says European leaders have been hopeful that the U.S. and Europe might work collectively beneath the brand new Trump administration. However feedback final week in Europe by a number of U.S. officers — Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth in Brussels, Vice President JD Vance and particular Russia-Ukraine envoy Normal Keith Kellogg in Munich, and by President Trump himself after an hour-and-a-half name with Russian President Vladimir Putin, have poured chilly water on any such hopes.
“The Europeans now realize they are standing alone,” he says.
Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky pleaded in Munich for Europe to hitch Ukraine in constructing a European combating drive “So that Europe’s future depends only on Europeans, and decisions about Europe are made in Europe,” he stated to resounding applause.
“Zelensky is saying this is our moment — where we either stand up and fight or we give up and let the Russians and the Americans draw the lines,” says Tenenbaum.
Monday’s assembly hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron, will probably be joined by the leaders of Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark.
In an op-ed in British newspaper The Each day Telegraph, U.Ok. Prime Minister Kier Starmer wrote that he’s able to ship troops to Ukraine to ensure a peace deal.
A minimum of three large European powers might want to step as much as create an actual guarantor drive, says Tenenbaum.
“What you need is for the UK and Poland to be on board along with France. And ideally a fourth country which could be Germany or Italy,” he says.
Tenenbaum says Europeans must battle for a spot on the negotiating desk “to be enough of a troublemaker that the U.S. and Russia realize the process may derail if they’re kept out of the room.”
Tenenbaum will probably be trying to see if the Europeans are prepared to take some dangers and be daring sufficient to earn a seat on the desk.
