European Diplomatic Race to Attend “Putin” and “Trump” Summit

EU leaders are seeking to participate in a potential meeting between Presidents Putin and Trump in Budapest. European countries are also pushing to involve Ukrainian President Zelensky in the summit to ensure that no fateful decisions regarding Ukraine are made without its input. The European Union rejects any settlement that includes Ukraine ceding territory to Russia.

The European newspaper “Politico” reported that leaders in the European Union are looking to engage in the anticipated meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump, scheduled to be held in Budapest, based on information provided by reliable diplomatic sources.

According to the report, European countries are making intensive efforts to include Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in this summit and in any potential future negotiations, in a serious endeavor to ensure that no crucial decisions regarding Ukraine are made without Kyiv’s opinion and participation, or at the expense of its interests.

The newspaper quoted a source as saying that the European Union strongly opposes any solution that leads to Ukraine giving up its territories to Russia, as proposed in US President Donald Trump’s plan to end the conflict, considering that such a step would cause panic and instability in the Baltic states – Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania – and may contribute to launching a new arms race in the European continent.

It is worth noting that Trump announced on October 16, following a phone call with Putin, that the two sides had agreed to hold a meeting soon in Budapest, while Yuri Ushakov, the Russian President’s aide, confirmed that Moscow and Washington would begin “without delay” to prepare for this summit.

On October 17, Trump received Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, where the latter later admitted that Trump’s team had asked Kyiv to withdraw from the Donbas region as part of a negotiation path aimed at ending the war.