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Andrej Plenkovic, Prime Minister, Republic of Croatia, Kristr\u02d9n Mjoll Frostadottir, Prime Minister of Iceland, Alexander Stubb, President of Finland and Edgars Rinkevics, President of Latvia, from left, speak as part of a panel discussion during the Munich Security Conference at the Bayerischer Hof Hotel in Munich, Germany, Sunday, Feb. 16, 2025. [AP Photo\/Matthias Schrader]<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n
Europe needs a special envoy for Ukraine to ensure it gets a meaningful role in any peace process, two European leaders said on Sunday after the continent was ruled out as a partner in talks by US President Donald Trump\u2019s administration.<\/p>\n
Europe will not have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks, Trump\u2019s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.<\/p>\n
In response, French President Emmanuel Macron is likely to host on Monday an emergency gathering of European leaders, including Britain. It would aim to see what immediate help they can give Ukraine, what concrete role Europe can play in providing security guarantees for Kyiv as well as how to strengthen Europe\u2019s collective security.<\/p>\n
But dozens of similar summits have shown Europe to be dithering, at times disunited and politically weak and scrambling to come up with a cohesive plan to end the Ukraine war and dealing with Russia.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf I may just throw out one idea loosely, if there is a negotiating table, I think we need to do something similar that was done in Kosovo,\u201d Finnish President Alexander Stubb said at the annual Munich Security Conference, referring to diplomacy that helped end Serbia\u2019s 1998-99 military crackdown on its restive southern province and bring about Kosovan statehood.<\/p>\n
\u201cEurope needs to have a special envoy like Martti Ahtisaari [on Kosovo], and then a deputy envoy who is on the level of \u2026 Kellogg\u2026, and in that sense, we get some kind of a skin in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump shocked European allies this week by calling Russian President Vladimir Putin \u2013 whose forces began a full-scale invasion of Ukraine three years ago \u2013 without consulting them or Kyiv and declaring an immediate start to peace talks.<\/p>\n
His administration also left them dismayed after blunt comments on its approach to the nearly three-year Ukraine-Russia war and US Vice President JD Vance launched a scathing attack in Munich on Europe\u2019s democracies and values.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat we lacked on Ukraine in recent years was one personality highly respected by everyone, taken into account in Moscow, taken into account in Kyiv, and having support in Washington and European capitals and other leaders, including the global South, that could have the authority to manage the peace talks,\u201d Croatian Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said. \u201cWe need the high visibility of someone strong, who can manage the process.\u201d<\/p>\n
(Reuters)\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n