Jean-Noël Barrot, France’s foreign minister, said European countries, including France, would be present at Russia-Ukraine talks scheduled to take place in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday and Wednesday, November 10 and 11, 2026, with US mediation. However, it remains unclear whether European representatives will participate directly in the trilateral talks involving the US, Russia and Ukraine, or whether their involvement will be limited to consultations on the sidelines.

According to Reuters, Barrot told RTL radio on Sunday, November 8: “Europeans will have a strong presence, and France will also be in Abu Dhabi to take part in these discussions.” He added that he could not yet name France’s representative but confirmed the country’s participation. Barrot stressed that decisions on the future of European security could not be made without considering the views and demands of European countries.

Steve Witkoff, the US president’s special envoy, previously said Washington would host working-level talks between Russian and Ukrainian delegations in Abu Dhabi on November 10 and 11. The discussions will focus on post-war security arrangements, military de-escalation, humanitarian measures and efforts to find a path towards ending the war in Ukraine. Witkoff and Jared Kushner, senior negotiators in Donald Trump’s administration, are expected to represent the US at the meeting.

The announcement of European participation comes as Russia has opposed their involvement in the current trilateral talks. Yuri Ushakov, the Kremlin’s foreign policy adviser, said European representatives would not be invited to the negotiating table. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it would not be possible to discuss Europe’s future security architecture at later stages of the negotiations without the participation of European countries.

Ahead of the Abu Dhabi meeting, representatives from the US, Ukraine, European countries and NATO held talks in Brussels on Thursday, November 5, on security guarantees for Ukraine and the future of Europe’s security architecture. Kushner described the consultations as constructive and said the US would also confer with its European partners on the sidelines of the Abu Dhabi talks. He said that if progress was made, the negotiations could be expanded into a multilateral format with direct European participation.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio also reported progress on Sunday in discussions concerning security guarantees for Ukraine and post-war European security arrangements, but stressed that no agreement had yet been finalised. The talks will be the first round of trilateral negotiations between the US, Russia and Ukraine since February 2026. Previous talks in Geneva ended without tangible progress towards ending the war.

The UAE has previously hosted peace talks between Russia and Ukraine and has acted as a mediator in prisoner exchanges between the two countries. According to the latest official figures released by the UAE Ministry of Foreign Affairs on October 23, the country’s mediation efforts have so far led to the exchange of 8,537 people between Russia and Ukraine in 27 rounds.