Macron calls emergency summit amid Ukraine peace talks

French President Emmanuel Macron has called an emergency summit of European leaders after Moscow and Washington agreed to hold Ukraine peace talks in Saudi Arabia, sidelining the EU.

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke by phone on Wednesday, marking their first known direct conversation since the escalation of the Ukraine conflict in February 2022.

On Saturday, the countries’ top diplomats followed up with a call to discuss “preparations for a potential high-level Russian-American summit.” Later that day, US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg stated that the EU nations would not be included in the negotiations.

Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski welcomed Macron’s initiative and confirmed that the summit will take place in France on Monday.

“I’m very glad that President Macron has called our leaders to Paris,” Sikorski said, as quoted by Politico, adding that he expects European leaders to discuss “in a very serious fashion” the challenges posed by Trump.

According to Sikorski, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk has accepted the invitation and will travel to France next week to “show our strength and unity.”

While the list of invitees was not revealed, The Guardian has reported that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will also be attending.

Macron has previously insisted on EU involvement in negotiations, telling the Financial Times that Ukraine must lead discussions on its own sovereignty, but Brussels has a key role in discussing “security guarantees and, more broadly, the security framework for the entire region.”

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, who previously banned his government from engaging in direct negotiations with Putin, admitted that Kiev’s representatives were not invited to discussions in Saudi Arabia either. “Maybe there is something at the table, but not on our table,” he told journalists on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.

Neither a French government spokesperson nor Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot immediately responded to a request for comment when approached by Politico.