What European leaders said about Trump at the White House meeting

New Delhi,UPDATED: Aug 19, 2025 05:49 IST

United States President Donald Trump’s White House meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, and European leaders has concluded and here's what the leaders said about the meeting and Trump:

FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL MACRON:

"This is why the idea of a trilateral meeting is very important because this is the only way to fix it. And by the way, I think as a follow up, we would need to probably need a trilateral meeting because when we speak about security guarantees, we speak of borders, the whole security of the European continent."

He added "And this is why we are all united here with Ukraine on this matter. In order to organize such a trilateral meeting, your idea to ask for the truce or ceasefire for at least to stop the killings, as we discussed, is a necessity."

GERMAN CHANCELLOR, FRIEDRICH MERZ:

"The next steps that are the more complicated ones. The path is open. You opened it last Friday, but now the way is open for complicated negotiations. And to be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire at the latest from the next meeting on. I can't imagine that the next meeting would took place without a ceasefire. So let's work on that and let's try to put pressure on Russia, because the credibility of these efforts we are undertaking today are depending on at least a ceasefire from the beginning of the serious negotiations from next step on. So I would like to emphasize this aspect and would like to see a ceasefire from the next meeting, which should be a trilateral meeting wherever it takes place,”

BRITISH PRIME MINISTER, KEIR STARMER:
"Really feel that we can, I think, with the right approach this afternoon, make real progress, particularly on the security guarantees. And your indication of security guarantees of some sort of article five style guarantees fits with what we've been doing with the coalition of the willing, which we started some months ago, bringing countries together and showing that we were prepared to step up to the plate when it came to security, with you coming alongside the US, alongside what we've already developed, I think we could take a really important step forward today. A historic step actually could come out of this meeting in terms of security for Ukraine and security in Europe."

ITALIAN PRIME MINISTER, GIORGIA MELONI:
"We will talk about many important topics. The first one is security guarantees, how to be sure that it won't happen again, which is the precondition of every kind of peace. I'm happy we will discuss about that. I'm happy that we will begin from a proposal which is the, let's say, article five model, which was Italian at the beginning. So we are always ready to bring our proposals for peace, for dialog. It's something we have to build together to guarantee peace and to defend the security of our nations. So thank you, Mr. President, for hosting us."

NATO CHIEF, MARK RUTTE:
"I think if we play this well, we could end this. And we have to end this. We have to stop the killing. We have to stop the destruction of Ukraine's infrastructure. It is a terrible war. So I'm really excited. And let's make the best out of today and make sure that from today onwards, we get this thing to an end as soon as possible, I really want to thank you for your leadership."

EUROPEAN COMMISSION PRESIDENT, URSULA VON DER LEYEN:
"We are here to work together with you on a just and lasting peace for Ukraine. Stop the killing. This is really our common interest. Stop the killing. And indeed, it's very good to hear that we're working on the security guarantees, article five style security guarantees. So important."

FINLAND'S PRESIDENT, ALEXANDER STUBB:
"And if I look at the silver lining of where we stand right now, we found a solution in 1944, and I'm sure that we'll be able to find a solution in 2025 to end Russia's war of aggression and find and get a lasting and just peace. The situation is very difficult, but that's why we're here."

- Ends

With inputs from agencies

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