Photo courtesy of AP
MINSK, 19 August (BelTA) - French President Emmanuel Macron has welcomed the idea of trilateral talks involving the leaders of Russia, the USA, and Ukraine to resolve the Ukrainian conflict but believes a four-party meeting including Europe should also take place. He said this during a meeting of European leaders with U.S. President Donald Trump and Vladimir Zelensky in Washington, TASS reports.
“The idea of a trilateral meeting is very important, because this is the only way to fix the problem. And, by the way, I think that as a follow up, we would need the quadrilateral meeting, because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent,” Macron emphasized.
Macron assured that Europe is ready to provide “its share of security guarantees for Ukraine” but stressed that lasting peace on the continent requires guarantees for Europe as well. “So you can count on us, just as we count on you,” he said, addressing the U.S. president.
Trump, in turn, expressed confidence in successful discussions with European leaders and Zelensky, paving the way for trilateral talks involving Russia, the USA, and Ukraine. Following Monday’s negotiations on 18 August, he intended to call Russian President Vladimir Putin. Earlier, during his meeting with Zelensky, the U.S. leader warned that without trilateral talks, hostilities would continue.
Joining Zelensky at the White House meeting were French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, as well as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte. Trump noted beforehand that this marked the first time in history the White House had hosted such a large gathering of European leaders.
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