France in Abu Dhabi: Jean-Noël Barrot announced on Sunday 8 November the French participation in the discussions on the war in Ukraine. The talks are scheduled for 10-11 November in the United Arab Emirates, between Ukrainian, Russian and American delegations. The Minister for Foreign Affairs also assured that Europeans would be represented. He has not yet appointed the French representative.
This announcement specifies the place of Paris in a diplomatic appointment already on the calendar. The dates of the meeting were known, but French participation had not been detailed. The discussions must re-launch a negotiation process that remains without decisive progress on the settlement of the war.
France in Abu Dhabi, with which representative?
« France will be around the table, » said Jean-Noël Barrot during a radio and television interview on Sunday. The minister confirmed the French presence in the capital of Emirati, while leaving open the identity of the person responsible for representing Paris.
So he did not announce his own displacement. His intervention also did not clarify the level of the French delegation. These elements remain pending before the opening of the discussions on Tuesday, 10 November.
The announcement is about attending a forthcoming meeting. It does not constitute the announcement of a ceasefire or an agreement between Kiev and Moscow. Delegations must resume their discussions under American mediation, as fighting and strikes continue.
Barrot wants European demands heard
The head of French diplomacy has linked this presence to the Europeans’ efforts in recent weeks. According to him, they asked the American mediator to take their expectations into account in any discussion involving the future of the continent.
Barrot presents French participation as a means of bearing this European position. He said that Europeans would be represented, without specifying the other participants or their mandate. At this stage, his statement does not describe the composition of any delegation of the European Union institutions.
This distinction counts for the format of the meeting. The announced appointment remains focused on the Russian, Ukrainian and American delegations. Paris confirms its presence, but the modalities of its association with the discussions remain to be clarified.
A dialogue always marked by territorial disagreement
Previous discussions between Russian, Ukrainian and American representatives were held in Geneva in mid-February. They had not allowed progress towards a settlement of the conflict triggered by the large-scale Russian invasion in February 2022.
The territorial issue remains a deadlock. Moscow demands in particular the complete withdrawal of the Ukrainian army from the Donetsk region in the east of the country. Kiev rejects this request, considering that such withdrawal would expose Ukraine to further attacks.
The appointment of Abu Dhabi also comes as we approach a new war winter. Russia continues to target Ukrainian energy infrastructure. On Sunday, operator DTEK reported that more than 600,000 people in the Dnipropetrovsk region had been deprived of electricity after night attacks.
Volodymyr Zelensky directly linked this strike campaign to the preparations for the talks. The French participation announced on Sunday is therefore part of a sequence where diplomatic preparations did not interrupt military operations.
Discussions are expected on Tuesday 10 and Wednesday 11 November in Abu Dhabi. Paris must further specify who will represent it and under what conditions its delegation will participate in the discussions.
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