Macron, Tusk to Discuss Ukraine Security Ahead of Poland’s EU Presidency

French President Emmanuel Macron is set to discuss future security for Ukraine with Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk in Warsaw on Thursday.

Elysée said Macron would discuss with Tusk European support for Ukraine “in a new transatlantic context, as well as with a view to the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU in the first half of 2025,” as per an RFI report.

The meeting would follow Macron’s meeting in Paris with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and US President-elect Donald Trump last week. Tusk said Macron would brief him on the results of the Paris discussions, which Tusk referred to as “short but important.”

Trump said Zelensky was open to “make a deal” to end the war following the Paris meeting. Zelensky thanked Trump’s “strong resolve” and said he also wanted to end the war, but he maintained that Russian President Vladimir Putin would not make a deal and “can only be forced” to end the war.

Zelensky said he is already working with Trump’s team, but he added that it would be possible to sort out all the details only after Trump’s inauguration on Jan. 20, 2025.

Trump said ending the war in Ukraine would be his top priority once he assumed office, previously vowing to do so “in 24 hours,” although how he would achieve it remains unclear.

Macron’s trip to Warsaw also came ahead of Poland’s six-month rotating EU Council presidency starting Jan. 1, 2025, a post currently occupied by Hungary until the end of 2024.

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Tusk, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, said on Tuesday that peace negotiations in Ukraine “could begin” this winter and hinted at Warsaw’s active involvement in the process. He added that he was scheduled to talk with Zelensky on the subject the same day.

Poland’s Ambassador Agnieszka Bartol said Monday that energy, defense and economic security will be the bloc’s focus under Warsaw’s rotating presidency, as per Euronews.

Bartol added that “new financing for defense,” particularly “innovative (financing) instruments,” would be among the discussions to boost Europe’s defense industry and capabilities, a sector that suffered from decades of underinvestment.