European leaders forge plan to secure Trump’s backing for Ukraine peace talks

European leaders, including UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and French President Emmanuel Macron, gathered for a security summit in London, demonstrating their support for Ukraine.

However, behind the scenes, they scrambled to repair ties between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump after a clash at the White House, Caliber.Az reports per foreign media.

The diplomatic whirlwind aimed to ensure that Trump remained engaged in efforts to support Ukraine, despite his outreach to Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss ending the war.

Macron noted that some nations proposed a one-month truce in Ukraine to allow peacekeeping discussions to unfold. “From my discussions over recent days, we’ve agreed that the UK, France, and others will work with Ukraine on a plan to stop the fighting,” Starmer told reporters, emphasizing the importance of presenting this plan to the US.

As the European leaders work to strengthen defence capabilities in response to growing tensions, the region's currencies saw gains against the US dollar. The euro rose 0.4 per cent, with defence stocks like Germany’s Rheinmetall AG and the UK’s BAE Systems seeing positive movement.

Zelenskyy, while calling the summit a "strong start," expressed cautious optimism about the potential for a foreign peacekeeping contingent but refrained from providing specific details on next steps. “There’s a theoretical possibility of a foreign contingent,” Zelenskyy said.

European leaders also face the challenge of convincing Trump to re-engage in negotiations. "There’s going to have to be a rebuilding of any kind of interest in good faith negotiations before President Trump is going to be willing to re-engage in any of this," Trump’s director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, said.

Meanwhile, Macron and Starmer sought to assemble a "coalition of the willing" for peacekeeping forces, aiming to reassure Ukraine about the stability of any peace agreement. The broader European Council will meet on March 6 to discuss a €20 billion military package for Ukraine and plans to bolster defence spending across the continent.

By Vafa Guliyeva