By Andrew Gray, Lili Bayer and John Irish
BRUSSELS (Reuters) – European leaders scrambled on Thursday to try to get a seat at the table in Ukraine peace talks after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke directly to Russian President Vladimir Putin and announced the start of negotiations.
Trump’s move sent shockwaves through European capitals, which want a central role in peace talks as any settlement in Ukraine, hit by a full-scale Russian invasion three years ago, will have ramifications for their own security.
“Peace in Europe is at stake, that’s why we Europeans need to be brought in,” German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock told Deutschlandfunk radio in an interview.
Arriving at a NATO meeting in Brussels, French Defence Minister Sebastien Lecornu warned against “peace through weakness” rather than the Trump officials’ mantra of “peace through strength”.
In a sign of the tension between the Trump administration and Europe, German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said it would have been better if Washington had not given what he called concessions to Moscow before peace talks even started.
Lithuanian Defence Minister Dovile Sakaliene warned that Europe should not fall “under the illusion that Mr. Trump and Mr. Putin are going to find the solution for all of us” as that would be a “deadly trap”.
At NATO headquarters, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth defended the U.S. approach, saying the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace”.
When asked if any European countries would be involved in peace talks, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said on Wednesday: “I don’t have any European nations who are involved currently to read out for you.”
EUROPEAN HOPES
Many European officials had hoped that a series of meetings with officials in Brussels and Munich this week would be their opportunity to influence U.S. thinking on the war.
But it soon became clear that the Trump administration was moving ahead without them.
Hegseth declared publicly on Wednesday it was unrealistic for Ukraine to return to pre-2014 borders and NATO membership for Kyiv would not be part of a peace deal. Russia seized and annexed Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula in 2014.
Hours after Hegseth spoke, Trump said he had held a “highly productive phone call” with Putin and they had agreed to start negotiations immediately. He then briefed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the call.
In a late-night statement after talks in Paris on Wednesday, foreign ministers from European powers – including Britain, France and Germany – said Europe must be part of any future negotiations on Ukraine.
A European diplomatic source said the ministers agreed they would now engage in a “frank and demanding dialogue” with U.S. officials at the annual Munich Security Conference – a three-day gathering that starts in the southern German city this Friday.
European leaders say one reason they need to be involved in talks is that Washington has made clear it expects them to provide security guarantees for any peace deal, which could mean European troops being deployed to Ukraine.
“There is no option to not be at the table, because we are very important in the actual implementation of those security guarantees,” said Dutch Defence Minister Ruben Brekelmans.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte sought to play down the differences within the alliance, telling reporters there was “a clear convergence” on key points.
“We all want peace in Ukraine rather sooner than later. We all want Ukraine to be in the best possible position when those talks start …, and … it is crucial that whatever comes out of those talks, it is durable,” Rutte told reporters.
(Additional reporting by Bart H. Meijer and Ludwig Burger; editing by Mark Heinrich)
