Meeting again in Paris, European leaders try to recalibrate after Trump sides with Russia

PARIS — President Emmanuel Macron of France called a second emergency meeting of European allies Wednesday seeking to recalibrate relations with the United States as President Donald Trump upends international politics by rapidly changing U.S. alliances.

Macron had already assembled a dozen European leaders in Paris on Monday after Trump and his new team angered and confused the United States’ traditional allies by suggesting that the United States would rapidly retreat from its security role in Europe and planned to proceed with peace talks with Russia — without Europe or Ukraine at the table.

Trump’s remarks late Tuesday, when he sided fully with Russia’s narrative blaming Ukraine for the war, have now fortified the impression that the United States is prepared to abandon its role as a European ally and switch sides to embrace President Vladimir Putin of Russia.

It was a complete reversal of historic alliances that left many in Europe stunned and fearful.

“What’s happening is very bad. It’s a reversal of the state of the world since 1945,” Jean-Yves Le Drian, a former French foreign minister, said on French radio Wednesday morning.

“It’s our security he’s putting at risk,” he said, referring to Trump. “We must wake up.”

Fear that Trump is ready to abandon Ukraine and has accepted Russian talking points has been particularly acute in Eastern and Central Europe, where memories are long and bitter of the West’s efforts to appease Adolf Hitler in Munich in 1938 and its assent to Josef Stalin’s demands at the Yalta Conference in 1945 for a Europe cleaved in two.

In the power vacuum, Macron has tried to show leadership, corralling allied leaders to devise a united response.

The Élysée Palace announced that he would host a second emergency meeting Wednesday of many European leaders who had not been included in the meeting Monday. Among them were the interim president of Romania, Ilie Bolojan, and Prime Minister Luc Frieden of Luxembourg, who would attend in person, while leaders from 18 other countries were scheduled to attend by video. They included Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, Sweden and Belgium.

The meeting comes the day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian representatives.

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