‘Emergency Summit’ in Paris on Monday

Barrot told French public radio station France Inter that Macron will “convene the main European countries to discuss European security”, before adding that the meeting will be a “working session” and should not be “overdramatised”.

However, as yet, it is unclear whether all 26 other European Union member states will be invited to the summit, and in the case that Cyprus is invited, it is unclear whether President Nikos Christodoulides will attend, given a possible calendar clash.

Christodoulides was set to visit Egypt to sign two agreements with multinational energy corporations and the Egyptian government over the exploitation of natural gas in Cyprus’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ), and was set to be joined by his Energy Minister George Papanastasiou on the trip.

The Cyprus Mail made persistent and repeated attempts to contact the Cypriot government after Monday’s meeting in Paris was announced but received no response.

German government sources have already confirmed to Reuters that Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend, while Polish government sources have done likewise regarding Prime Minister Donald Tusk.

According to Reuters, they said the meeting’s aim will be to “see what immediate help can be given to Ukraine, what concrete role Europe can play in providing security guarantees for Kyiv”, with other discussions also set to be held over the matter of strengthening Europe’s collective security.

Meanwhile, Dutch news website the NL Times confirmed that Prime Minister Dick Schoof would attend the meeting, British newspaper The Guardian confirmed Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer’s presence who said that he was ready to send British troops to Ukraine as part of any postwar peacekeeping force as he tried to show the US that European nations should have a role in the talks on ending the conflict.

The meeting was announced after the reports surfaced that officials from the United States and Russia would meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days to hold talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said his country was not invited to any talks, and that he would not engage with Russia without first consulting with his country’s “strategic partners”.

It is expected that US Secretary of State Marco Rubio will be among the American delegation travelling to Saudi Arabia, while it is not yet clear who will attend from Russia.

Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke on Saturday, with the pair agreeing on “regular contacts” with a view to holding a future meeting between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Source: Cyprus Mail