With diplomacy on the war in Ukraine splintering in various directions, President Emmanuel Macron of France held meetings Thursday with top American officials that were designed to preserve at least the appearance of a united front.
At a working lunch with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, President Trump’s envoy, Mr. Macron discussed “peace negotiations aimed at ending the Russian aggression in Ukraine,” a statement from the French presidency said.
That wording appeared unlikely to please the Trump administration, which has taken a different view of the conflict. It has claimed that Ukraine was responsible for Russia’s invasion, berated President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine for being ungrateful, and aligned with the likes of North Korea in rejecting a United Nations resolution condemning Russia for its aggression.
This shift and other measures have led to rising tensions between Europe and the United States over what is widely seen as a sharp ideological shift in Mr. Trump’s America, away from support of Western democracies and toward a sympathetic view of authoritarian regimes. Yet, despite pursuing a separate line of diplomacy, at least until today, the Trump administration seems to want some help from Europe in ending the fighting in Ukraine.
A later French presidential statement said the meeting “illustrated the regular dialogue between France and the United States on major international issues in order to secure stability and preserve multilateral cooperation.” It offered scant details on Ukraine.
Mr. Macron and Mr. Trump speak to each other regularly by phone, often in an impromptu way, officials close to the president, who customarily request anonymity in line with their jobs, said. The two leaders developed a cooperative, if sometimes uneasy, relationship during Mr. Trump’s first term in office.
Before the lunch meeting, Mr. Macron spoke with Mr. Zelensky, the French presidency said. Mr. Zelensky called in a statement for “pressure” on the Kremlin to “end the war and guarantee a durable peace.”
Mr. Witkoff, who was in Moscow last week for five hours of meetings with Mr. Putin, the third such encounter since Mr. Trump took office in January, has said he is trying to develop a “friendship, a relationship” with Mr. Putin.
In the view of Mr. Trump, such conciliation with Russia, widely viewed with suspicion or outrage in Europe, is needed to secure a 30-day cease-fire in Ukraine, to be followed by negotiations for a lasting peace.
Mr. Trump’s diplomacy has appeared stalled. His outreach to Russia has taken place as Europe has redoubled its assurances of political and military support to Ukraine. Mr. Putin has balked, setting various conditions for a cease-fire. The Russian bombardment of Ukraine continues. The Ukrainian foreign ministry said on Thursday that three people, including one child, were killed in overnight Russian drone attacks that continued during the day to devastating effect.
Last week, the German defense minister, Boris Pistorius, said: “Given Russian’s ongoing aggression against Ukraine, we must concede peace in Ukraine appears to be out of reach in the immediate future.” He also expressed uncertainty about how long the United States would continue its support for Ukraine.
But Giorgia Meloni, the right-wing Italian prime minister whose conservative views have led Mr. Trump to call her “a fantastic woman,” described the United States as a “reliable partner” during a visit to Washington on Thursday. The remark illustrated divergent views of Mr. Trump among European powers.
“I’m just trying to get it stopped so we can save a lot of lives,” Mr. Trump said of the war on Sunday.
His diplomacy has not been helped by a growing view in Europe that the United States under Mr. Trump should now be viewed as an adversary. Mr. Trump and senior administration officials have in recent weeks called Europe “pathetic,” a “permanent security vassal” and the locus of an attempt to “screw the United States,” among other dismissive remarks.
“We find ourselves with two adversaries, Russia and the United States,” Bruno Fuchs, a centrist lawmaker who is the president of the National Assembly’s foreign affairs committee, said in an interview on Thursday. “Or perhaps at best one-and-a-half.”
Speaking after a recent three-day visit to Washington, Mr. Fuchs said he encountered a climate of “shock and spreading fear” and had the impression of “an American police state taking form.” The result, he said, was a stark ideological clash between Europe and the United States.
A Ukrainian delegation, including Andriy Yermak, Mr. Zelensky’s chief of staff, and Andrii Sybiha, the foreign minister, also arrived in Paris Thursday and met with Mr. Macron’s foreign policy adviser, Emmanuel Bonne.
“The parties will discuss ways to achieve a complete cease-fire, the involvement of a multinational military contingent to guarantee sustainable peace” and the strengthening of Ukraine’s “security architecture,” Mr. Sybiha wrote on social media.
However the “multinational military contingent,” known in Western capitals as “a reassurance force,” is highly contentious. Moscow has rejected outright any such international military presence.
France and Britain, the countries attempting to organize such a possible deployment in the event of a peace deal, have met with widespread hesitation among European governments, including in Italy and Germany. Where such a force would deploy and how, if at all, it would be supported by the United States remains unclear.
Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin’s spokesman, said on Thursday that European powers were intent on “pursuing the war.”
Mr. Rubio and Mr. Witkoff held meetings after lunch with Mr. Bonne and Mr. Yermak, as well as with Jonathan Powell, the British national security adviser, and Jens Plötner, the German national security adviser, in an attempt to align approaches to ending to the war, which has raged in Ukraine for more than three years.
They were also expected to discuss Mr. Trump’s efforts to reach a nuclear deal with Iran. Mr. Witkoff has planned a second round of talks later this week with Abbas Araghchi, the Iranian foreign minister, after discussions last Saturday in Oman.
Roger Cohen is the Paris Bureau chief for The Times, covering France and beyond. He has reported on wars in Lebanon, Bosnia and Ukraine, and between Israel and Gaza, in more than four decades as a journalist. At The Times, he has been a correspondent, foreign editor and columnist.
The post Europe and America, at Odds Over Ukraine, Try Talking to Each Other appeared first on New York Times.
