European leaders have waited on the margins of negotiations to end Russia's war in Ukraine for months, eyeing a seat at the table. Now they expect to get one, but they do not agree on who should sit in it. Jared Kushner, President Trump's son-in-law and one of his two envoys, said on Thursday that if Europe could identify one person to speak on its behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include it in the negotiation. His remark reflected a potentially embarrassing reality: internal divisions could cost European officials time and influence.
Mr. Kushner and fellow lead U.S. negotiator Steve Witkoff pushed this week to add the Europeans to the talks after Russia insisted during discussions in the United Arab Emirates that postwar security in Europe be a topic of negotiation. Russian negotiators have made clear that, as a condition of ending the war, they want Europe to change how it protects itself, and Russia has a record of pushing to pare back NATO operations near its border. European officials have rejected those suggestions, insisting that the continent, not the Kremlin, decides its own security. Luc Frieden, prime minister of Luxembourg, said in an interview on Friday, "I don't want someone to talk about our European house, if they are not living in that house."S1
Naming a lead negotiator would give Europe a voice in discussions about its own future, while failing to choose someone quickly might make the continent appear weak and fragmented. How the Ukraine war is settled could reverberate across Europe for decades, either containing Russian expansionism or emboldening it. President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine warned dozens of leaders assembled in Dublin for a summit on Thursday that "Europe really needs to pay attention." Picking a representative has proven difficult, as small EU nations do not always trust big ones to reflect their interests, and Britain and Norway, which have a financial and security stake, are not part of the European Union.S1
The issue grew more pressing late on Thursday. Mr. Kushner told reporters at an air base in Dublin, after a meeting with the Kremlin, that Russian officials had been asked about having European negotiators at the table and were "willing to give it a try." Mr. Zelensky, standing alongside him, said that at the next meeting Europe will be on the "negotiation team." EU leaders were due to debate who should represent them at a lunch in the Irish capital on Friday, and Mr. Zelensky is pushing Europe to choose someone by the end of the month, possibly as soon as a meeting of Ukraine's allies next Thursday in Germany.S1S2
