Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Emmanuel Macron and Donald Trump in Paris in December 2024, before the opening of Notre Dame Cathedral / Photo: Stephane Lemouton / Bestimage
On Saturday, the first trilateral meeting between US President-elect Donald Trump, French President Emmanuel Macron and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took place in Paris. The event, organised at the Elysee Palace, took on particular significance amid geopolitical tensions and expectations from the new administration in Washington, AFP reports.
Donald Trump, who arrived in France on his first foreign visit since winning the November 5 election, met with Macron at 15:45 GMT. Less than an hour later, Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived at the palace. This meeting, according to sources in French diplomacy, was decided “almost at the last minute”.
Warm welcome and serious discussions
Trump and Zelenskyy exchanged a long, friendly handshake in the courtyard of the Elysee Palace, after which they were joined by Macron. The leaders posed for official photographs before the start of the closed-door talks, which lasted about 35 minutes.
“We had a good and productive trilateral meeting with Presidents Donald Trump and Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace. As always, President Trump is determined, and I am grateful to him for that. I also thank Emmanuel for organising this important meeting,” Zelenskyy wrote on Platform X.
After the talks, the Trump and Zelenskyy convoys travelled to Notre Dame Cathedral, where they and Macron attended the official opening ceremony of the cathedral after the restoration, completed five years after the devastating fire of 2019.
