Britain’s defence top brass will head to Paris for crucial talks this week aimed at producing a “concrete” plan for the Coalition of the Willing to protect Ukraine.
Chief of the Defence Staff Sir Tony Radakin will co-chair a meeting of European defence chiefs in Paris on Tuesday, with Defence Secretary John Healey travelling to the French capital for talks with the continent’s major defence powers on Wednesday.
It could mean a plan for European security guarantees for Ukraine could be presented to the US by the end of the week.
The week is gearing up to be significant for diplomacy aimed at ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, with Ukrainian officials due to begin talks with the US in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday on achieving peace.
At the same time, the European nations will hold the two days of talks seek in an effort to firm up plans for security guarantees for Ukraine if a peace deal is eventually negotiated.
A Whitehall source told The i Paper: “Tuesday is a big day all round. You’ve obviously got the talks in Riyadh as well. It’s the next phase of this push for peace.”
In a sign of the UK and France continuing to lead Europe’s efforts to end the war on acceptable terms for Ukraine, Radakin will co-chair Tuesday’s meeting of armed forces chiefs with his French counterpart Thierry Burkhard.
The aim of the talks will be to put flesh on the bones of Sir Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron’s plan for allies of Ukraine to deploy troops to the country to deter future Russian aggression if a peace deal is signed.
About 20 countries have so far been involved in the talks, with most coming from Europe or the Commonwealth. However, many of the nations are yet to reveal their intentions publicly and specific troop commitments have not been announced.
The Whitehall source said: “There’s a broad spectrum of people interested [in the Coalition of the Willing], but it’s for them to say when they want to become public about that.
“It’s about building the broadest possible coalition at this stage.”
After the meeting of the defence chiefs, Healey will hold talks on Wednesday with the defence ministers of Europe four other main military powers – France, Germany, Italy and Poland.
The meeting will, it is understood, be aimed at taking forward the plan agreed by the defence chiefs on a political level. Plans for the coalition would have to be backed by the US and acceptable to Ukraine to have the best chance of succeeding.
The Whitehall source said European nations were responding to signals from the US that it wanted peace negotiations to move quickly, and that this week’s talks were a “positive show of continued momentum”.
“We need to keep up this pace,” the source added.
During Wednesday’s meeting, Healey will report to his European counterparts on the talks he had last week in Washington DC with the US Defence Secretary, Peter Hegseth.
The Whitehall source said the US was genuinely interested in what Europe could offer to help preserve peace: “It’s clear that the US do want to see a concrete, tangible offer on the table.”
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