French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot stated on Sunday that Paris will be "around the table" during next week’s U.S.-brokered peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Abu Dhabi. He told French radio RTL that Europe will be well represented, though he could not yet identify who will represent France specifically. The U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff announced last Monday that trilateral talks involving Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow are scheduled for Nov. 10 – 11. This is the first such meeting since a summit held in February. The extent to which other European nations will participate remains unclear as of now.
Internal coordination and security concerns
European Commission spokesperson Paula Pinho said Friday that the EU executive did not yet have details to share. She added that it is obviously up to the European Union to decide on matters affecting its security. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni urged European Council President Antonio Costa to settle the issue in a letter this week. Costa placed the matter on the agenda of the Nov. 13 leaders’ summit. Meloni’s letter was partly prompted by a phone call Finland’s Alexander Stubb and Norway’s Jonas Gahr Store made to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Oct. 27, which took some European leaders by surprise.
The plan has brought anxiety among EU officials, who fear it risks sidelining the continent and emboldening Putin. U.S. President Donald Trump spoke late Thursday of a "big, beautiful agreement" after meeting with Putin’s envoy Kirill Dmitriev. He claimed it would involve more than Ukraine and might even involve all of Europe. EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas responded Friday by stating that a European security architecture already exists through NATO and the EU. She emphasized that Ukraine must be integrated into this structure and that Putin does not have a veto over European security. Meanwhile, the European Commission hosted reconstruction talks on Wednesday with representatives from Ukraine, the U.S., U.K., Germany, France, NATO, and the World Bank.
