Security guarantees protecting Ukraine against a Russian invasion in the event of a peace deal would need to be backed by Europe and the United States, Polish prime minister Donald Tusk has said.
The question of how European states might respond to a settlement ending the war in Ukraine was discussed at an emergency summit of a small group of leaders on Monday. France, Germany, and the UK were among the governments represented at the meeting.
The gathering in Paris, organised by French president Emmanuel Macron, debated what role EU states and allies such as the UK could play if a deal was struck between Ukraine and Russia to end the conflict.
The informal summit was also attended by the leaders of Italy, Poland, Denmark, Spain and the Netherlands, as well as European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen and Nato secretary general Mark Rutte.
Speaking before the meeting, Mr Tusk said Poland would urge other European governments to take “immediate, large-scale action” to bolster their militaries. “If we Europeans fail to spend big on defence now, we will be forced to spend 10 times more if we don’t prevent a wider war,” he said.
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The crisis meeting in Paris came as Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov prepares to meet US secretary of state Marco Rubio in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, for talks to work towards ending the Ukraine war.
Contacts between US and Russian officials are beginning to intensify, building up to a possible summit between US president Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin soon. European leaders fear they will be sidelined in the crucial talks, the outcome of which would have big security implications for the Continent.
Ukraine has insisted that any deal must include a way to guarantee its security from a future Russian attack. Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said this might mean Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance, something US officials have already ruled out.
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth also rejected the inclusion of US troops in any peacekeeping force sent into Ukraine, following a ceasefire.
On the eve of the Paris summit, British prime minister Keir Starmer said the UK was “ready and willing” to put troops on the ground, to help make sure any peace lasted.
Foreign ministers from the 27 EU states are expected to discuss how the bloc can increase the military support it sends to Ukraine in the short term. Proposed new targets are expected to be brought to the table when ministers meet in Brussels next week, one diplomatic source said.
In a significant policy shift, European Commission president Ursula von der Leyen has said the European Union executive would relax budget rules around defence spending. EU states try to keep their national spending deficits within a 3 per cent ceiling. Under the new plans defence spending would not count towards those limits.
Big defence spenders, such as Poland and many of the EU’s eastern states, have been calling for the limits to be eased, as has Italy, which is struggling with high levels of public debt.
Dr von der Leyen likened the situation to a “crisis” on par with the Covid-19 pandemic, when EU rules capping state borrowing were temporarily sidelined.
Speaking in Brussels, Minister for Finance Paschal Donohoe said increasing defence spending could be done in a financially prudent way. “I am certain that we will find ways to respond back to the security needs that Europe has, while at the same time looking after our basic economic stability, both can be done together,” he said. Additional reporting − Reuters
