The French president has talked to Mohammed bin Salman before the upcoming US-Russian meeting in Riyadh
French President Emmanuel Macron has revealed that he has spoken on the phone with Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, discussing issues including the Ukraine conflict and the EU’s role in ending the hostilities.
The call comes ahead of an upcoming meeting between US and Russian delegations in the Saudi capital, Riyadh, expected on Tuesday. In a post on X, Macron outlined the topics covered in his call with bin Salman, including the situations in 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.”
Last week, after the US and Russia announced that they would hold bilateral talks, Macron called for an emergency summit of European Union leaders with the goal of addressing the shift in the American approach to the conflict. The French leader is aiming to coordinate a joint EU stance on the issue and ensure the bloc is not sidelined in peace deal discussions.
Leaders from several EU nations have committed to participate in the summit, including Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
Meanwhile, 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.
