The German chancellor, Friedrich Merz, has demanded this Friday of the president of the United States, Donald Trump, that there be no "surprises" in the development of the peace negotiations on Ukraine as a result of his contacts with the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, with whom he is scheduled to meet next week in Shenzhen (China).
"I want to convey once again, with absolute clarity, our message to the United States: please, let there be no surprises. Keep working as a team with Europe and with Ukraine, and let us work together toward real peace in Ukraine," Merz has said to the media in Dublin, where he is attending an informal summit of heads of state and government of the European Union.
The German leader has revealed that "some (leaders) fear" that the new meeting between Trump and Putin could turn into "a second Anchorage moment," referring to the first summit that both held in Alaska in August 2025, the first face-to-face since the start of the Russian offensive against Ukraine and which ended without tangible progress.
Merz has stressed that the White House envoys for contacts with Kyiv and Moscow, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, traveled on Thursday to Dublin to meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and to also pass along to European partners the information about the conversations held with Putin.
In this context, the chancellor has indicated that in "the coming weeks" they expect "for the first time concrete peace talks" to take place in which Europe has a seat at the table, and he has insisted that it is "clear" that Europeans must participate because "you cannot talk about Europe without Europe, nor about Ukraine without Ukraine."
The question of who should represent the Union in that potential negotiating process and what exactly their mandate will be remains open among the Twenty-Seven. Although the matter has been discussed at the Dublin meeting, everything indicates that it will remain unresolved when the EU leaders meet again in two weeks at a new European Council in Brussels.
Meanwhile, Merz has stressed that, ahead of the next round of talks, it is “completely clear” that Germany will have its participation guaranteed, and he has reiterated that Berlin will defend the common interests of Europeans. He has also specified that the European countries that took part this week in Abu Dabi are expected to be present, and that they will tell Russia that, despite its willingness to engage in dialogue, they will not accept reopening the debate on the security architecture in Europe.
“It already exists,” he insisted in referring to the European security architecture supported by NATO and by the European dimension of the Alliance; and he has wanted to underline the unitary position of the Twenty-Seven by recalling that “it was Moscow, and only Moscow, that destroyed the peace order,” and that, for that reason, “the security of Europe will continue to be guaranteed by a strong, united and also European NATO.”