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PARIS: European foreign ministers on Monday pressed US secretary of state Marco Rubio at a G7 meeting in Paris to ensure any settlement in the war with Russia is fair to Ukraine, ahead of US-mediated talks on ending the conflict.
European capitals have insisted that they must be represented at the table in the negotiations in Abu Dhabi and some have also expressed wariness about intensifying American talk of a new security architecture for Europe.
The meeting of ministers from the leading industrialised nations of Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan and the US provides Europe and its allies with a chance to air concerns with their US counterpart.
Russia’s war against Ukraine following the February 2022 full-scale invasion of its neighbour is grinding towards its fifth anniversary. And Washington is still not ruling out new attacks against Iran even after the defeat of President Donald Trump’s Republicans in last week’s midterm elections.
The meeting coincides with US-mediated talks with Moscow and Kyiv in Abu Dhabi, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday, on ending the Ukraine war.
“It is certainly neither necessary, nor right, nor appropriate to make a fundamental change” to Europe’s existing security architecture, said German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul after talks with Rubio.
“Europe belongs at this table. There can be no solution without Europe — only with Europe,” he added.
French foreign minister Jean-Noel Barrot said on Sunday that Europeans would be represented at the Abu Dhabi talks, with France also participating.
Trump stoked fears of a US pivot toward the Kremlin by predicting a “very big” deal with Russia involving not only Ukraine but “all of Europe”.
But before leaving for Paris, Rubio said the post-war security infrastructure of Europe is “one of the key topics that’s been raised repeatedly in every conversation any time negotiations have been discussed”.
“We obviously have to get past the conflict to get to that point,” he noted.
Europe security concerns
President Trump’s son-in-law and envoy Jared Kushner meanwhile said Russia and Europe must hold direct talks on “broader security arrangements” as part of any Ukraine peace deal.
“We recognise the difficult decisions ahead,” he said.
Speaking in Bucharest, EU commission chief Ursula von der Leyen said Russia must halt fighting in Ukraine before “meaningful” talks can be held on broader security arrangements in Europe.
Ukraine’s foreign minister Andriy Sybiga will be joining the talks in Paris for a session on Ukraine on Tuesday.
Before leaving for Paris, he said: “No one has the right to decide our fate behind our backs.”
Wadephul said the Abu Dhabi talks must show whether Russia is “genuinely prepared to negotiate”, urging Moscow to “give up maximalist demands” and warning against any “negotiation show” in the UAE capital.
He warned that against a background of continued Russian attacks on Ukrainian civilian infrastructure “we see no substantial contribution whatsoever toward negotiations gaining any serious momentum” on Moscow’s part.
But in an interview with AFP, Canada’s foreign minister Anita Anand hailed the “importance” of US-mediated talks, saying it was “positive” that both sides were willing to discuss a settlement to end the war.
Iran conflict
On Iran, Trump has not ruled out new strikes, including at so-called Pickaxe Mountain, a suspected nuclear site which Tehran denies is such a facility.
Europeans, however, are eager to see a resolution and shipping traffic return to normal in the Strait of Hormuz energy transit hub.
Trump allayed some fears by telling CNN it was “highly unlikely” that fighting would resume.
“We certainly cannot afford any military escalation at this point,” said Wadephul, adding the G7 talks would “focus on identifying ways to ensure it is indeed avoided”.
Rubio warned however there had been “no progress” in talks with Iran, whose demands he said were “simply not just unacceptable but, in some cases, outrageous and ridiculous and really not realistic”.