Max Boot
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff arrived in Paris on Wednesday to consult with French leaders about President Donald Trump’s efforts to negotiate a cease-fire in Ukraine, among other topics.
The trip could be interpreted as a welcome recalibration by the Trump administration given how little heed its officials have previously paid to European views—and how often the president has belittled these allies for supposedly not paying enough for defense and not trading fairly with the United States. Now, with the Trump administration seeing the chances of a Ukraine cease-fire slipping away, its representatives seem to be hoping the French can help salvage Trump’s hopes of ending the Russia-Ukraine war. French President Emmanuel Macron is leading Europe’s effort to provide Kyiv security guarantees if a deal is hammered out.
Regardless of what the Europeans do, the odds of a successful cease-fire seem remote because Russian President Vladimir Putin has shown scant interest in calling off his brutal war of aggression. Witkoff’s meeting with Macron follows his visit to Moscow last week where he said he had “compelling” talks with Putin about the conflict in Ukraine—though it does not appear to have compelled the Russians to do much.
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