In a message published on the official site of the Presidency of the Council of Ministers, shortly after last Friday’s disastrous meeting in Washington between the American president and his Ukrainian counterpart, Vladimir Zelenski, the leader launched her initiative after stating that “a division does not suit anyone.”

“An immediate summit between the United States, European states and allies is necessary to talk frankly about how we intend to address the great current challenges, starting with Ukraine, which we have defended together in recent years, and those that we will be called upon to address in the future,” she asserted in the note.

“This is the proposal that Italy intends to make to its partners in the coming hours,” she added, referring to the meeting to be held next Sunday in London to address those issues, convened by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, as well as to the informal EU summit to be held in Brussels on March 6.

The meeting between Trump and Zelenski at the White House on February 28 was expected to address the end of the conflict with Russia, the security guarantees demanded by Ukraine and an economic agreement between Kiev and Washington on the exploitation of rare earth minerals in the European nation.

However, the contact resulted in a confrontation that led to the cancellation of the signing of the economic agreement and the planned press conference after the meeting, as well as the abrupt interruption of the Ukrainian president’s visit to the United States.

jrr/arm/ro/ort