French President Emmanuel Macron has called for an emergency summit of European leaders after Moscow and Washington agreed to hold peace talks on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia, excluding the EU from the process. US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin had a phone call on Wednesday, their first direct conversation since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.
The top diplomats of the countries continued the discussion on Saturday, discussing “preparations for a possible high-level Russian-American summit.” Later in the day, US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg noted that EU countries would not be involved in the negotiations.
In his speech at the Munich Security Conference, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski welcomed Macron’s initiative and confirmed that the summit will take place on Monday in France.
“I am very happy that President Macron has called our government leaders to Paris” Sikorski said, according to Politico and added that he expects European politicians to “seriously” discuss the challenges posed by Trump.
Sikorski stated that the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accepted the invitation and will travel to France next week to “show our strength and unity.”
Although the list of invitees has not been published, the Guardian reported that British Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also attend.
Macron had previously insisted on the EU’s inclusion in the negotiations, telling the Financial Times that Ukraine must lead the discussions on its own sovereignty, but Brussels has a key role in discussing “security guarantees and, broader, the security model for the entire region.”
Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had previously banned his government from holding direct talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, acknowledged that Kiev’s representatives were not invited to the talks in Saudi Arabia. “Perhaps there is something on the table, but not on our table” he said to journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
Neither a spokesperson for the French government nor Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot has responded to Politico’s requests for a statement.