European ministers press Rubio in Paris for a seat at the table in Ukraine talks
European foreign ministers told United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Paris that Europe must have a say in any deal to end Russia's war on Ukraine, ahead of US-mediated talks between Russia and Ukraine in Abu Dhabi.
The appeal was made on Monday at a meeting of foreign ministers from the Group of Seven, which includes Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom and the United States.
It was Rubio's first meeting with allies since last week's midterm elections, in which President Donald Trump's Republican Party suffered stunning losses.
After the talks, German Minister for Foreign Affairs Johann Wadephul said it was certainly neither necessary, nor right, nor appropriate to make a fundamental change to Europe's security architecture.
Europe belongs at this table, he added. There can be no solution without Europe — only with Europe.
The two-day Paris meeting ends on Tuesday, overlapping with the talks between Russia and Ukraine, scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday.
Wadephul said the Abu Dhabi talks must show whether Russia is genuinely prepared to negotiate. He urged Moscow to give up maximalist demands and warned against any negotiation show in the capital of the United Arab Emirates.
With Russian attacks on Ukraine's civilian infrastructure continuing, he said there was no substantial contribution whatsoever from Moscow toward negotiations gaining any serious momentum.
Andrii Sybiha, Ukraine's foreign minister, is set to join a session on Ukraine in Paris on Tuesday. Before departing for the meeting, he said no one has the right to decide our fate behind our backs.
The Paris meeting comes as G7 members have grown increasingly uneasy with the direction of US policy, including Washington's scaling back of support for Ukraine and of sanctions on Russia, as well as its increasingly unilateral course.
Ministers from Saudi Arabia, Egypt, South Korea and Brazil are also attending.
Iran is expected to feature prominently in the discussions on Tuesday. Washington's allies have repeatedly voiced scepticism about the US and Israeli war on Iran and fear that further US military action could deepen the crisis rather than resolve it.
Al Jazeera's Rebecca Collard, reporting from Paris, said the first day of talks had wrapped up with little clarity on US policy after the midterm elections. She said the second day of talks will include a session on instability in the Middle East — but that something bigger is also up for discussion: the future of the multilateralism that has dominated relations among these countries for decades.
