G20 meeting of foreign ministers gets underway in South Africa amid tensions with US

ATHENS: Europe should wake up and build its own defense policy following a dramatic shift by the United States over Ukraine and geopolitical developments in recent months, Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis said late on Wednesday.
US President Donald Trump upended US policy on the Ukraine war this week, denouncing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky as a “dictator” and suggesting Kyiv started the three year war between Ukraine and Russia.
Trump warned that Zelensky had to move quickly to secure peace or risk losing his country, deepening a feud between the two leaders that has alarmed European officials.
The US and Russia held peace talks in Saudi Arabia this week without Ukraine, stunning Kyiv and its European allies.
Ukraine has said it will not accept a deal imposed on it without its consent, which European leaders have echoed, while Russia has ruled out conceding land it has won.
Addressing a business conference in the city of Thessaloniki late on Wednesday, Mitsotakis said that Europe needed to “wake up from the geopolitical and economic lethargy into which it has unfortunately fallen for some time.”
“Recent developments and this different view of things from the United States now oblige us not only to face the truth, but to move at a very high speed and implement decisions that we have been discussing for long,” he said.
Mitsotakis pointed to Europe setting up a defense policy which will allow it to develop its own deterrent power and reduce reliance on the United States.
His comments were made shortly after he joined virtually a second meeting that France convened with European leaders and Canada to discuss Ukraine.
Europe has relied heavily on US might within NATO for security and Trump has consistently demanded Europe spend more on defense. Trump has now demanded that Europe provide more military muscle for any future Ukraine peace(Reporting by Angeliki Koutantou; Editing by Michael Perry)

PARIS: President Emmanuel Macron said Wednesday that France and its allies agreed Ukraine’s rights and European security concerns should be taken into account in any deal to end the war with Russia, before he heads to Washington next week.
“The position of France and its allies is clear and united. We wish for peace in Ukraine that is lasting,” Macron said on X after a meeting with the leaders of 19 mostly European countries, with most taking part by video link.
US President Donald Trump has stunned the European Union by saying he is ready to resume diplomacy with Vladimir Putin after three years of Russia’s war against Ukraine, over the heads of both European countries and Kyiv.
Macron held the meeting on Ukraine Wednesday afternoon in a bid to coordinate a European response to what he has called an “existential threat” from Russia after the shock US policy shift.
“We stand by Ukraine and will carry out all our responsibilities to ensure peace and security in Europe,” Macron said after the video conference.
But he said participants, which included the leaders of EU nations as well as Iceland, Norway and Canada, stressed Ukraine should be included and “its rights respected” in the process.
They said “robust and credible guarantees” were needed to ensure a lasting deal, and “European security concerns” must be taken into account.
“We are convinced of the need to increase our defense and security spending and capacities for Europe and each of our countries,” Macron added.
Macron is set to meet Trump in Washington as early as Monday, Trump told reporters aboard his plane on Wednesday.
A White House official previously told AFP the meeting would take place “early next week,” on condition of anonymity.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet US envoy Keith Kellogg on Thursday and that he hopes for “constructive” work with the United States, after Trump lashed out against him on social media.
Trump on Wednesday called Zelensky a “dictator,” after a day earlier accusing Kyiv of having “started” the war, sparking pushback from even some members of his own Republican party.
France has been one of Ukraine’s main Western backers since Russia began its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in February 2022.
Macron on Monday hosted key European leaders including from Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland and the Netherlands, as well as NATO and EU chiefs for emergency talks, but several smaller European countries including Romania and the Czech Republic were reportedly aghast at not having been invited.
Romania’s interim president Ilie Bolojan and Luxembourg’s Prime Minister Luc Frieden were present in person at the meeting on Wednesday afternoon, the French presidency said.
The leaders of Lithuania, Cyprus, Finland, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Greece, Ireland, Latvia, Norway, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia and the Czech Republic meanwhile joined via video conference call.
Hungary and Slovakia, whose prime ministers are seen as close to Putin, as well as NATO member Turkiye, whose President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is eager to act as a mediator, were not on the list of participants.
“Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans,” Macron said in an interview with French regional newspapers published on Tuesday.
“Do not think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst.”
Macron appeared open to the idea of sending forces to Ukraine but emphasized that this could take place only in the most limited fashion and away from the front lines.
France, along with Britain, was considering sending “experts or even troops in limited terms, outside any conflict zone,” he said.
Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said France may have to make some difficult choices.
“Russia has decided to make enemies of us, and we must open our eyes, realize the scale of the threat and protect ourselves,” he told broadcaster RTL.
“If we do nothing, if we remain blind to the threat, the front line will move ever closer to our borders.”
He said earlier that only the Europeans could provide the guarantees necessary to ensure long-lasting “peace” in Ukraine.
To keep up the pressure on Moscow, EU countries on Wednesday agreed a new round of sanctions on Russia, diplomats said.