Paris – French President Emmanuel Macron and his American counterpart Donald Trump spoke on the phone a few minutes before Macron gave European dignitaries who had gathered to discuss security in Paris.
The office of the French president said that the “frank conversation” had lasted 20 minutes.
The appeal came while European leaders rush to find a unified response to the upheavals posed by Trump’s second term, including his plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin directly to discuss the end of the war in Ukraine. The European powers fear that they will be cut in a negotiation in which they have a vital stake.
The Olaf Scholz in Germany, Giorgia Meloni of Italy, Spain Pedro Sanchez, the Keir Starmer of the United Kingdom, the Denmark Pedriksen, Donald Tusk of Poland and the Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof all gathered in Paris for what French officials described as an “informal meeting”. The president of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the Council Antonio Costa and the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte, are also present.
Before the meeting, Tusk called on European states to considerably increase defense spending to meet the continent’s security challenges, Washington seeming ready to relaunch its military commitments in the region.
Politices
