Rubio and Witkoff to visit Paris for Ukraine talks, Politico reports

Rubio and Witkoff are expected to arrive in Paris this week.

Two people familiar with the preparations for the visit informed Politico about this event. The focus will be on the war in Ukraine, the situation in Gaza, Iran, and trade relations.

According to preliminary information, Witkoff will meet with French President Emmanuel Macron, while Rubio will hold talks with French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot. Afterward, Rubio intends to head to Africa.

One American official noted that the meetings in France will be key following Witkoff's recent visit to Moscow. There, he held talks with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin about a potential ceasefire in Ukraine.

The White House stated that this meeting was "another step in the negotiating process towards a ceasefire," despite Trump's "frustration" over the lack of progress.

France is currently leading European efforts to secure security guarantees for Ukraine. Macron supports the idea of deploying so-called assurance forces on Ukrainian territory in the event of a truce.

During the negotiations, the parties are also expected to discuss the possibility of reducing trade tensions following Trump's recent tariff announcements. Last week, the French leader said that the 90-day suspension of tariffs announced by Trump is nothing more than a "fragile" pause in rising tensions.

On April 11, US President's Special Envoy Steve Witkoff held nearly five hours of closed-door talks with Vladimir Putin. The meeting took place under Donald Trump's call to "get moving" on ending the war in Ukraine.

It was expected that one of the topics of the talks would be a possible meeting between Putin and Trump. Another - the settlement of the Russian-Ukrainian war.

Furthermore, on April 2, US President Donald Trump signed an executive order imposing tariffs on imports from over 180 countries. According to the document, reciprocal tariffs ranging from 11% to 48% will be introduced for certain countries, while a "basic" rate of 10% will apply to the rest.

Meanwhile, the United Kingdom has published a list of 8,000 American goods that may be subject to tariffs in response to US President Donald Trump's policy.

And French President Emmanuel Macron has called for a halt to French investments in the United States.