Trump, Zelensky, Macron Meet in Paris

In-person talks between US, Ukrainian presidents are the first since November election
By Bob Cronin,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 7, 2024 12:00 PM CST
Macron Hosts Trump, Zelensky Meeting
French President Emmanuel Macron, right, welcomes President-elect Trump at the Elysee Palace in Paris on Saturday.   (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

President-elect Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky met Saturday for the first time since the US election, in a session hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron before they attended the reopening of Notre Dame Cathedral. Macron's office announced the meeting minutes before it began; he had been scheduled to meet separately with Trump and Zelensky, Politico Europe reports. After Trump arrived more than 40 minutes late at the Elysee Presidential Palace to first see Macron, he greeted the French leader with an intense handshake and was welcomed by an honor guard.

Trump's past comments about Ukraine's battle to drive Russia out of the country have caused concern—including an interview in which he said Zelensky shouldn't have "let that war start." The two have talked on the phone once since the November election. France has changed its tone a bit since Trump's first term, the Washington Post points out. While the cathedral was burning in 2019, Trump posted a suggestion to use "flying water tankers" to save the landmark. The French civil defense agency didn't find that helpful and answered that such a strategy "could lead to the collapse of the entire structure of the cathedral."

"It seems like the world is going a little crazy right now and we will be talking about that," Trump told reporters Saturday before the sessions, per Le Monde. Zelensky said last week he's receptive to working with Trump. "I want to share with him ideas, and I want to hear from his ideas," he said. For Zelensky, the cathedral gathering also is an opportunity to build support in person among other world leaders for his country's war effort, per the New York Times. (More Russia-Ukraine war stories.)

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