Rubio Assures EU Counterparts Involvement in Ukraine Talks

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio told his French, British, Italian and German counterparts that the European Union would be involved in talks on the war in Ukraine, Italy's foreign minister said Tuesday.

Rubio had a phone call with his European counterparts as well as European policy chief Kaja Kallas after his talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, Antonio Tajani, the Italian minister, said in a statement.

"Rubio's words were very clear. Europe will be involved in the negotiations for a very clear reason: We have imposed sanctions on Russia, sanctions that are in place, and there can be no negotiations if the issue of sanctions is not at the table and around the table those who decided and apply them," Tajani said.