Macron pleads with Saudi prince over Ukraine talks
French President Emmanuel Macron has revealed that he has spoken on the phone with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, to discuss the Ukraine conflict and the EU’s role in ending the hostilities. The call comes ahead of a meeting between US and Russian delegations in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, expected on Tuesday.
In a post on X on Monday Macron listed the topics covered in his call with bin Salman, including Gaza, Lebanon, and Syria. Regarding Ukraine, the French leader said he had discussed “the role Saudi Arabia could play in fostering a solid and lasting peace, with Europeans at the center of the process.”
US Special Envoy Keith Kellogg earlier suggested that European nations may not be included in the talks on Ukraine, stating that Washington doesn’t want to “get into a large group discussion.”
Following the announcement that the US and Russia would hold their first bilateral talks in over three years, Macron convened an emergency summit of European leaders in Paris on Monday, to address the shift in the American approach to the conflict. The French leader is aiming to ensure the EU is not sidelined in potential peace deal discussions.
Leaders from several EU nations committed to the summit, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Kellogg has justified the exclusion of Western Europe from the talks in Riyadh by pointing to the failed Minsk Agreements that were signed between Ukraine and the now-Russian Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics in 2015. Germany and France were supposed to be the guarantors of the failed accords but later admitted that they only signed them to buy Kiev time to build up its military.
“We are not gonna go down that path,” Kellogg stressed.
Trump has maintained that he is optimistic that the Ukraine conflict could be resolved soon, stating after his phone call with Putin, as well as with Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky, that both Moscow and Kiev are eager to end the fighting.
According to Bloomberg, Trump’s team is hoping to reach a ceasefire agreement in Ukraine by Easter on April 20. Kellogg has also suggested that a detailed US peace plan could be unveiled in the coming days or weeks.
