• White House says Trump open to a trilateral summit with Putin and Zelensky, but currently plans a bilateral meeting with Putin at his request
• German Chancellor says Berlin working with Washington to ensure Zelensky’s participation in talks
• EU foreign policy chief convenes emergency meeting of the bloc’s ministers on Ukraine war today

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump is open to holding a trilateral summit in Alaska with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, a White House official said on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Germany assumes that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky will attend a summit between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin next Friday, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Sunday.

The White House is currently planning a bilateral meeting with Putin at his request, Reuters quoted the official as saying.

Putin and Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska on Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict between Russia and Ukraine, despite pleas from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations, AFP reports.

“We hope and assume that the government of Ukraine, that President Zelensky will be involved in this meeting,” Merz said in an interview with broadcaster ARD.

Merz told ARD that Berlin was working closely with Washington to try to ensure Zelensky’s attendance at the talks.

“We cannot accept in any case that territorial questions are discussed or even decided between Russia and America over the heads of Europeans and Ukrainians,” he said. “I assume that the American government sees it the same way.” Merz added that he hoped that the talks could make significant progress towards a peace settlement and even produce a “breakthrough”.

“We hope that there will be a breakthrough on Friday,” he said. “Above all (we hope) that there will finally be a ceasefire and that there can be peace negotiations in Ukraine.” Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit.

Putin, a former KGB officer who has held power in Russia for more than 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.

He insists the invasion was necessary to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine as well as Russia’s security.

Ukraine’s leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and argues that meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.

EU ministers’ meeting

In a related development, top EU diplomat Kaja Kallas said she would convene an emergency meeting of EU ministers Monday (today) as she stated any deal between the United States and Russia to end the war in Ukraine must include Kyiv and the bloc.

“President Trump is right that Russia has to end its war against Ukraine. The US has the power to force Russia to negotiate seriously. Any deal between the US and Russia must have Ukraine and the EU included, for it is a matter of Ukraine’s and the whole of Europe’s security,” Kallas said in a statement Sunday.

“I will convene an extraordinary meeting of the EU foreign ministers on Monday to discuss our next steps,” she said. The meeting will take place online.

“As we work towards a sustainable and just peace, international law is clear: All temporarily occupied territories belong to Ukraine,” Kallas said.

She also warned any deal “must not provide a springboard for further Russian aggression against Ukraine, the transatlantic alliance and Europe”.

Published in Dawn, August 11th, 2025