G7 ministers open Paris talks pressing for a European seat at Ukraine peace table
G7 foreign ministers opened two days of talks in Paris, with Europe pressing Washington for a role in US-mediated Ukraine peace talks in Abu Dhabi and for restraint on Iran.
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Foreign ministers of the G7 opened two days of talks in Paris on Monday, with Europe pressing the United States for a seat at the table in the talks on ending Russia's war in Ukraine, and for restraint on Iran.
The meeting coincides with US-mediated talks between Moscow and Kyiv due to open in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot told RTL radio that "Europeans will be represented and France will participate in these talks", adding that no deal affecting European security could be reached without the Europeans.
The Europeans' worry is that Washington could press Kyiv into terms that cost it territory without security guarantees. President Donald Trump has said a deal is in the making and told CBS that Ukraine would end up with "a little bit different shape". US Secretary of State Marco Rubio is attending both days in Paris, after coming for only one day at the last meeting in March. Ukraine's foreign minister, Andrii Sybiha, is expected to join a session on Tuesday.
The meeting and its agenda are confirmed by AFP and DW reporting from Paris, and Barrot's remarks to RTL are on the record. What the ministers will actually produce is limited: France has indicated the meeting is not expected to yield a joint communique, and Barrot himself said he did not know the details of the US plan for a settlement. Rubio has said recent discussions made progress on security guarantees for Ukraine and the wider region, while Trump's envoy Jared Kushner has described US work on a broader European security framework, a proposal President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has questioned, saying debate about such a framework should follow efforts to end the war, not precede them.
The Paris meeting is one of the last major acts of France's G7 presidency. The United States takes over the rotating presidency in 2027. It is the allies' first chance to judge whether the Republican midterm defeat has changed Washington's approach to Ukraine and the Middle East. The real test comes on Tuesday in Abu Dhabi, where the presence or absence of Europeans at the table will show whether the pressure applied in Paris counted for anything. On the sidelines, the French finance ministry is hosting a donor conference on Monday to fund repairs to the dome shielding the Chernobyl reactor.