German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will next week host French President Emmanuel Macron for talks on Ukraine ahead of an EU summit, the German government said Friday.
The talks on Tuesday come as the Europeans scramble to come up with a united position after a US policy shift on the three-year conflict under President Donald Trump.
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“European political topics will naturally form the focus of the discussion” between the two leaders “but certainly the distressing international issues affecting us all will also play a role, particularly the developments in Ukraine”, government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit told a press conference in Berlin.
The meeting will serve as preparation for a European Union summit in Brussels on Thursday and Friday, he added.
Scholz is set to relinquish power soon, after his centre-left SPD party was defeated in elections last month. His likely successor, conservative leader Friedrich Merz, hopes to dramatically ramp up defence spending in the face of Russian hostility and worries about the US commitment to Europe.
EU leaders have rallied around Ukraine since Trump began piling pressure on Kyiv to swiftly strike a deal to end the war and made overtures to Russia.
Kyiv this week agreed to a US-proposed plan for a ceasefire. Russian President Vladimir Putin has said he has “serious questions” about the plan but was ready to discuss it with Trump.
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