European leaders hold emergency talks, fearing that Trump has abandoned age-old allies

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00:00An urgent meeting at the Elysée Palace following the United States' shift away from its historic

00:05partners. Olaf Schultz from Germany, Poland's Donald Tusk, but also UK Prime Minister Keir

00:12Starmer, EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and NATO Chief Mark Rutte. The Allies

00:19showed up in numbers in Paris. Their aim? To come up with a coordinated response to

00:26the United States' sudden change of position. Donald Trump's administration appears to

00:32be seeking to find a deal alone with Russia to end the war in Ukraine. Speaking over the

00:38phone last Wednesday, Trump and Putin agreed to have their teams begin negotiations. On

00:44Monday, the UK government's spokesman said Keir Starmer expects to meet Donald Trump

00:48next week after saying he'd send British troops to Ukraine if necessary.

00:53Unless and until we get a peace agreement, we must ensure Ukraine's in the strongest

00:59possible position. We don't know what's going to happen next. The last thing I want to see

01:04is a pause in the fighting that simply gives Putin the chance to come again, which is why

01:09it's very important that we have these discussions. I think it's very important for the UK to

01:14be talking obviously with our European allies as we do the whole time. Last week, the United

01:19States Defence Chief suggested that Ukraine should abandon hopes of winning its territory

01:23back from Russia and ruled out its ambitions to join NATO. Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile,

01:30said that he wouldn't recognise an agreement if Ukraine isn't involved in the peace talks.

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