A meeting between US President Donald Trump and French President Emmanuel Macron has revealed stark differences in their approach to Ukraine, exposing a divide between Washington and Europe over Trump’s bid for a quick ceasefire deal with Russia.
At the same time in Moscow, Russian President Vladimir Putin offered the US an economic deal on minerals in his country.
During a day of talks on February 24 between Trump and Macron in Washington, the two leaders outwardly presented a friendly rapport based on years of good ties.
Despite that, Macron made clear he disagreed with Trump on some key issues as they marked three years since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
Trump refused to refer to Putin as a dictator, after calling Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky the same on February 18. Macron said it was clear that Russia “is the aggressor” in the conflict, a topic Trump wavered over on February 21.
“President Putin violated the peace,” Macron said at the joint press conference with the US President at the White House.
Trump expressed a desire for a ceasefire as soon as possible and said he was trying to arrange one between Ukraine and Russia. He said he could go to Moscow to meet Putin once a deal was reached.
Macron, on the other hand, urged a more deliberate approach, starting with a truce and then a peace deal that included security guarantees.
“We want peace, he wants peace. We want peace swiftly, but we don’t want an agreement that is weak,” Macron told reporters.
Any peace deal, he said, must be “assessed, checked and verified”.
The two leaders did agree, though, on the deployment of European peacekeeping forces once a peace deal was eventually reached.
“They would not be along the front lines. They would not be part of any conflict. They would be there to ensure that the peace is respected,” Macron said earlier in the Oval Office with Trump.
Trump said he accepted the concept, as did Putin.
“Yeah, he will accept that,” Trump said about the Russian leader’s position on a peacekeeping force. “I specifically asked him that question. He has no problem with it.”
On the same day in Moscow, Putin said Russia was not opposed to Europe’s involvement in Russia-US peace talks on the Ukraine crisis but he said Brussels had previously declined to engage in dialogue with Moscow.
Trump reported progress on reaching a revenue-sharing agreement with Ukraine on Ukrainian minerals as a way to recoup the cost of weaponry pumped into the country by the previous Joe Biden administration. Trump said he expected Zelensky to come to the US within a few days to seal the agreement.
Zelensky on February 15 rejected US demands for $500 billion (€477.6 billion) in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the US had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and had offered no specific security guarantees in the agreement.
Also in Moscow on February 24, Putin offered the US the opportunity for joint exploration of his country’s rare earth metals deposits, as well as the supply of aluminium to the US domestic market, outlining a future economic deal between the two countries.
Trump earlier said that “major economic development transactions with Russia” would take place. Within two hours of his statement, Putin chaired a meeting with his ministers and economic advisers on rare earth metals.
“We, by the way, would be ready to offer our American partners, and when I say ‘partners,’ I mean not only administrative and governmental structures but also companies, if they showed interest in joint work,” Putin said on state TV after the meeting.
“We undoubtedly have, I want to emphasise, significantly more resources of this kind than Ukraine,” Putin added. He mentioned that a potential US-Ukraine deal involving rare earth metals was not a concern for Russia.
He noted that Russian companies could supply up to 2 million tons of aluminium to the US market annually if the US market reopens. Russia used to provide around 15 per cent of US aluminium imports before prohibitive duties were introduced in 2023.
Back in Washington, Trump, asked if it was possible that Ukraine might have to cede some territory to Russia, said: “Well, we’re going to see.”
The French President said any deal should include sovereignty for Ukraine.
Macron, the first European leader to visit the US President since he regained power on January 20, called his discussions with Trump “a turning point” in the drive for a more unified approach.
He has been trying to capitalise on a relationship with the US leader built during their first presidential terms. The French President showed how he has managed to deal with the unpredictable Trump without alienating him.
At one point during their Oval Office meeting, Macron touched Trump’s arm and carefully corrected the US President’s claim that Europe had delivered all of its aid as loans.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer is also set to visit Trump in the next couple of days, amid alarm in Europe over the US President’s hardening stance towards Ukraine and overtures to Moscow on the conflict.
