Europe pushes for seat at Ukraine peace talks​‌ but lacks unified voice

DUBLIN (AP) — European nations are seeking an envoy to represent them in talks on ending the Russia-Ukraine war, concerned that a U.S.-backed process will leave them sidelined and Kyiv vulnerable as Moscow and Washington decide the fate of a conflict that has roiled the continent.

Whether that should be one individual or more and who it might be is being debated as leaders from the 27-nation European Union meet Friday at a summit in Dublin. Senior EU officials and politicians have been suggested, but there is not yet a consensus.

What the job might entail is also unclear and contested. But there is broad agreement by governments from the U.K. to Ukraine on the need for Europe to join the ongoing negotiations involving Moscow, Kyiv and Washington.

Ukraine is eager for backup from its European allies, as it's reluctant to leave the talks solely in the hands of a U.S. administration that has often seemed to lean toward Moscow’s views. Russia does not want European countries involved in direct negotiations, complaining they are financing and supplying Ukraine’s military effort.

And the Europeans do not trust U.S. President Donald Trump to negotiate on their behalf after a series of tense standoffs over trade, Greenland and conflicts in Iran and Ukraine.

“Without Europeans, there is no support for Ukraine,” French President Emmanuel Macron said at the European Political Community meeting in Dublin on Thursday. “There is no more U.S. support."

“At the end of the day, we will be the ones to define and decide for our future security as Europeans,” he said.

European leaders fear Russian President Vladimir Putin will press Trump to back a peace settlement that weakens not just Ukraine but broader European security. Putin has demanded NATO troops be pulled back from Russia’s borders and that no European forces be deployed in Ukraine.

British Prime Minister Andy Burnham rejected the idea that Europe was being sidelined during peace negotiations, saying “there are European voices in the room.”

“All the leaders I’ve spoken to today are determined to put a bit of a ring of steel around Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as part of all of this to back him up to the hilt, and that’s what we will do,” he said.

As envoys from Washington, Moscow and Kyiv met in Abu Dhabi, several European countries, including the U.K., France and Germany, attended discussions nearby.

Supporters of a single envoy, like Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, argue that their absence has let individual countries or small groups engage in freelance diplomacy.

“There are too many different groupings discussing the issue,” she said.

Meloni has criticized a series of seemingly uncoordinated initiatives, including a call to Putin by Finnish President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian Prime Minister Jonas Gahr Støre, that she said could undermine European interests.

She has increasingly pushed the idea of a common EU representative for Europe to speak with “a single, authoritative voice” and requested a decision by Friday in Dublin to be formalized in December in coordination with non-EU partners in Europe like Britain and Norway.

Irish Prime Minister Micheál Martin said that “Europe has to have a coherent negotiating place at the table, but it’s not just the European Union" and called for “a wider European continent perspective” that includes the U.K., Norway, Canada and others.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov argued that for Europe to join peace talks, it first must name a representative. “The Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar. If someone takes the initiative to establish contact with the Russian side, those people face ostracism.”

The question of who represents Europe is an old one. Europe itself is loosely defined. Is it the 27-nation EU, the 32-nation NATO military alliance made up mostly of European countries, the 29-nation Schengen zone, or the 47-nation European Political Community?

That has frustrated Washington in the past and present.

After this week's U.S.-brokered talks between Ukraine and Russia in the United Arab Emirates, envoy Jared Kushner said that “if Europe could identify one person to speak on their behalf, that would be a bigger achievement than getting the Russians to include them in the negotiation.”

That echoes the famous quote attributed erroneously to former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger: “Who do I call if I want to call Europe?”

After meeting with Putin in Moscow, Kushner and fellow envoy Steve Witkoff flew to Dublin to brief Zelenskyy. Kushner said in a statement on X that Moscow had agreed to “include our European partners” in the next round of negotiations to “address the broader postwar European security arrangements alongside the territorial issues between Ukraine and Russia.”

Zelenskyy too said the Europeans would not be on the sidelines. “We are involving European representatives even more actively in diplomacy so that they can have an equal seat at the negotiating table. Ukraine always defends the interests of all of Europe,” he said on X.

France, Germany and the U.K., the region’s top three economies collectively known as the European trio or E3, have so far been the most engaged European body in negotiations. But while London is deeply involved with Ukraine, it left the EU in 2020.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Thursday that the E3 is “a proven format” for diplomacy.

But an E3 envoy would leave out the other 25 EU nations and rankle smaller nations like those that border Russia and Belarus on the bloc’s “eastern flank” which face constant hybrid threats, including influence campaigns and disruptive drones.

Some back a top EU official for the job. Even inside Brussels, however, there are two leading contenders: European Council President Antonio Costa and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas.

Costa's current role is to represent national leaders. A former prime minister of Portugal, he spent much of the past year visiting capitals across the bloc.

“European security cannot be discussed without a European voice at the table,” Costa said in Dublin on Thursday. “That European voice needs to be a team effort between European nations, the European Union and NATO.”

But earlier this year, Costa faced down criticism within the EU after his office set up a hush-hush backchannel with Moscow.

Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia, could also lay claim to the position of envoy.

She said in Dublin that the E3 represents the “big countries” but then asked “who is representing the European Union?"

"Americans are representing American interests. Europeans are representing European interests,” Kallas said, adding that the EU’s foundational treaties are “very, very clear” that she and Costa were appointed in 2024 to represent the bloc in “security matters.”

Kallas, however, has had a bumpy track record with U.S. diplomats as Washington and Brussels sparred over trade and Ukraine. She's also acknowledged issues between her office, the EU's External Action Service, and the European Commission.

Another name that has been floated is Stubb, the Finnish president. He has warm relations with Trump and met in Oslo with U.S. envoys Witkoff and Kushner in October. A week after that, he called Putin with Støre, the Norwegian prime minister. Stubb spoke with Zelenskyy by phone on Tuesday.

Urgency is needed in Europe, said Latvian Prime Minister Andris Kulbergs, pointing to recent cyberattacks, arson and a drone attack in Leipzig, Germany.

“The threats are real," he said. "We’re going to see more and more and more because that’s the way how they can stop the support of Ukraine. That’s what they want to achieve.”

Associated Press writers Geir Moulson in Berlin and Colleen Barry in Milan contributed to this report.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, left, speaks with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen during a meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, right, speaks with Germany's Chancellor Friedrich Merz during a round table meeting of the European Political Community (EPC), in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Britain's Prime Minister Andy Burnham, left, sits next to the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy, with other European leaders in attendance, during the Ukraine security meeting as part of the European Political Community (EPC) summit in Dublin, Ireland, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026. (Stefan Rousseau/PA via AP, Pool)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and French President Emmanuel Macron meet during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Virginia Mayo)

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy stands next to French President Emmanuel Macron, right, and Ireland's Prime Minister Micheál Martin as they pose for a family photo of all participants during the European Political Community (EPC) Summit in Dublin, Thursday, Nov. 12, 2026.(AP Photo/Peter Morrison)

PERTH, Australia (AP) — Mahli Beardman ripped through England's batting lineup in his first taste of international cricket on home soil Friday, taking six wickets to return the best figures ever by an Australian bowler on ODI debut.

The white-ball series was overshadowed this week by the reignition of the 2018 Sandpapergate scandal. Less than four hours before the toss, Australia test captain Pat Cummins held a news conference in Sydney and described claims in Usman Khwaja’s autobiography released this week as “complete and utter nonsense.”

The 21-year-old Beardman did his upmost to get attention back on the field, taking his first ODI wicket with his eighth delivery and quickly rattling England's best batters to snare 6-24 and help dismiss the visitors for 131 in under 34 overs.

Beardman dismissed skipper Harry Brook (1) in the 12th over and former skipper Joe Root (17) — playing his 200th one-day international — in the 14th.

He started and finished his fourth over with the wickets of Jordan Cox (2) and Sam Curran (0) as England slumped to 58-6 at the end of the 16th. He then picked up Liam Dawson (0) in his next over to become the first Australian since Tony Dodemaide — who took 5-21 against Sri Lanka in 1988 — to claim a five-wicket haul on his ODI debut.

He finished off the innings with the wicket of No. 11 Jofra Archer (11). The first eight England wickets combined for 65 runs; the last two partnerships added 66.

“It all happened very quickly,” Beardman said in a post-session TV interview. “It's a great privilege and honor to be able to represent my country. To go out and take a few wickets as well was just cherry on top.”

Beardman's only previous international experience was a T20 against Pakistan at Lahore in January.

The Western Australian paceman used an ideal length that he learned in the Perth conditions to elicit edges from Brook, Root and Cox as they tried to play forward, and he pulled it back to have Curren caught at fine leg from a short-pitched delivery. His fifth wicket, a fuller ball that moved away, had Dawson caught slicing to backward point.

Left-arm paceman Spencer Johnson (3-42) started the wickets tumbling when he got some extra bounce and had Ben Duckett caught at backward point in the fifth over. And he took a spectacular leaping, one-handed return catch to dismiss Jamie Overton (4) as England ended the 19th over at 65-8.

Will Jacks helped England reach triple figures with a steadying knock of 25 from 47 balls in a ninth-wicket stand with Gus Atkinson but fell to the first delivery from Johnson after a drinks break and the total slipped to 102-9.

Australia’s squad for the three ODIs and five T20s against England is missing front-line pace bowlers Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Josh Hazlewood and Scott Boland, who are all resting ahead of the four-test series against New Zealand and next year's test tours to India and England.

After winning the toss and electing to bowl Friday, Australia's ODI captain Mitch Marsh said Beardman, as a West Australian, couldn't have asked for a better place to debut.

“We've got a reasonably young and inexperienced side, but lots of energy," he said.

England's squad arrived in Australia on the back of a tri-series in Pakistan, where it lost three games before Duckett and Dawson inspired a 55-run consolation win over Sri Lanka.

There were some tough defeats, particularly when Brook’s fastest-ever ODI double-century wasn’t enough to stop Sri Lanka from achieving the second-highest successful run chase — 430 runs — in ODI history, and the one-wicket loss to Pakistan.

See AP’s full cricket coverage here

England's Joe Root bats during the first one-day international cricket match between Australia and England in Perth, Australia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (Richard Wainwright/AAP Image via AP)

Australia's Mahli Beardman is congratulated by teammates after dismissing England's Liam Dawson during the first one-day international cricket match between Australia and England in Perth, Australia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (Richard Wainwright/AAP Image via AP)

Australia's Mahli Beardman celebrates after taking the wicket of England's Harry Brook during the first one-day international cricket match between Australia and England in Perth, Australia, Friday, Nov. 13, 2026. (Richard Wainwright/AAP Image via AP)

FILE - Delhi Capitals' David Warner waves to his fans during the awards ceremony at the end of the Indian Premier League cricket match between Delhi Capitals and Chennai Super Kings in Visakhapatnam, India, March. 31, 2024.(AP Photo/ Surjeet Yadav File)

FILE - Australia's Usman Khawaja leaves the ground after losing his wicket during day two of the first test cricket match between Sri Lanka and Australia in Galle, Sri Lanka, Jan. 30, 2025. (AP Photo/Eranga Jayawardena File)