Three diplomats said on Tuesday (February 18) that France plans to host a second summit on Wednesday (February 19) to discuss the situation in Ukraine and European security issues. The meeting will invite other European countries and NATO allies including Canada who did not attend the previous meeting on Monday.
According to Reuters, two sources mentioned that the invited countries for the second meeting include Norway, Canada, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Czech Republic, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden, and Belgium. The meeting will be held in a hybrid format, combining in-person and video conferencing.
Politico reported on Tuesday that European leaders are concerned about President Trump’s intentions after he decided to negotiate with Russian President Putin to end the Russia-Ukraine war. Faced with increasing pressure from the United States, the Ukraine Unity Front meeting led by France convened in Paris on Monday (February 17). Leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Poland, Denmark, and the UK participated in the meeting. However, the effort ultimately failed as the parties could not reach a consensus on deploying troops to maintain a possible Russia-Ukraine peace.
On Tuesday, the United States and Russia held a bilateral meeting in Riyadh, the capital of Saudi Arabia for over 4 and a half hours. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov agreed to establish a high-level negotiation team to discuss solutions to the Russia-Ukraine war.
Following the meeting, the US State Department stated that the talks “took an important step forward” and the two sides reached four points of agreement. Russian negotiators indicated that the discussions on Ukraine with the US were positive. Currently, the meeting time between President Trump and President Putin has not been confirmed by the US and Russia.
The meeting between the US and Russia did not have representatives from Ukraine and other European countries.