Macron hopes to use special relationship to sway Trump

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron will use his “unique” relationship with Donald Trump to get the US leader to include Europeans in any settlement of the Ukraine war, French officials said ahead of Macron´s trip to Washington on Monday.

Macron is expected to urge Trump to consider the safety of America´s allies as the US leader builds up contacts with Russia´s President Vladimir Putin. Macron will head to the White House on the third anniversary of Russia´s invasion of Ukraine. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer follows later in the week. “I am going there to say that the security of the French and the Europeans is important,” Macron said on Saturday. Russia, he said, is “heavily armed” and continues to become “even more heavily-armed”.

Trump sent shock waves around Europe when he declared his readiness to resume diplomacy with Putin and end the Russia-Ukraine war without European nations and Ukraine. Macron last week tried to coordinate a response to Washington´s shock policy shift, hosting two meetings with key leaders.