HIGH-RANKING US officials are set to land in Europe this week as tensions continue to mount between the EU and the Trump administration over tariffs, defence spending and the war in Ukraine.  

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s special envoy, will travel to Paris this week for talks with European officials on US efforts to negotiate a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.

Vice President JD Vance is also set to meet Italian Prime Minister Georgia Meloni later this week. Meloni is due to travel to Washington DC tomorrow.

It will be Vance’s first trip to Europe since he delivered a now infamous speech earlier this year, in which he described the EU’s “retreat” from its values and its “threat from within” when it comes to democracy, likening the EU to the Soviet Union.

That trip also saw Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth warn Europe that the US could no longer guarantee its long-time allies’ security. Hegseth is scheduled to meet his French counterpart Sébastian Lecornou in the US tomorrow. 

The US State Department said Rubio and Witkoff would be in the French capital tomorrow for the meetings.

The officials will have “talks with European counterparts to advance President Trump’s goal to end the Russia-Ukraine war and stop the bloodshed,” department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce said in a statement.

Rubio also will “discuss ways to advance shared interests in the region”, she said.

French President Emmanuel Macron will meet Rubio and Witkoff, according to the president’s office. They also will hold talks with Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot on the war in Ukraine, the Middle East and the Iranian nuclear programme.

The meetings come as concerns grow about Trump’s readiness to draw closer to Russia as the US seeks to broker a ceasefire in Ukraine.

There is wariness about other Trump administration moves, from tariffs on some of its closest partners to rhetoric about Nato and open desire to take over Greenland, a Danish territory.

Rubio and Witkoff have helped lead US efforts to seek an end to the war in Ukraine more than three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion. Several rounds of negotiations have been held in Saudi Arabia, and Witkoff met last week with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Moscow and Kyiv agreed last month to implement a 30-day halt on strikes on energy facilities, but Russia has kept up daily strikes.

Both parties have differed on the start time for stopping strikes and alleged daily breaches by the other side. Moscow has effectively refused to accept a comprehensive ceasefire that Trump has pushed and Ukraine has endorsed.

Russia has made it conditional on a halt in Ukraine’s mobilisation efforts and Western arms supplies, which are demands rejected by Ukraine.

In a sign of Witkoff’s broad portfolio as Trump seeks to broker peace deals from Ukraine to the Middle East, the envoy held negotiations last weekend with Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi over Tehran’s advancing nuclear programme. More talks are expected on Saturday.

With reporting from Press Association