Speaking to RTL radio, Barrot said the Europeans would be represented at the talks. "The Europeans will be worthily represented. France will arrive in Abu Dhabi to take part in these discussions," he said.
Barrot added that in recent weeks European countries had pressed the American mediator to take their interests and demands into account in discussions about the continent's future. "France will make sure Europe's voice is heard," the minister said.
Trilateral talks between Russia, Ukraine and the United States are scheduled for November 10-11. The Russian delegation will be led by presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky, whom The Moscow Times describes as a hardliner. It will also include Deputy Foreign Ministers Mikhail Galuzin and Sergei Ryabkov, and representatives of two General Staff directorates, Igor Kostyukov and Yuri Zhigarlovsky.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Interfax that Putin aide Yuri Ushakov is overseeing the upcoming talks but, apparently, will not be part of the negotiating group.
The Ukrainian delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, head of the Foreign Intelligence Service. It will also include Presidential Office head Kyrylo Budanov and David Arakhamia, leader of the Servant of the People faction in the Verkhovna Rada.
According to US presidential envoy Steve Witkoff, the new round of talks will focus on de-escalation, humanitarian measures and post-war security. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he intends to push for an energy truce, security for grain exports and a prisoner exchange.
In late October, The Telegraph's sources among Western diplomats said Putin had agreed to bring European representatives into the settlement, seeing it as a chance to force NATO to abandon eastward expansion and return to its 1997 borders. According to the outlet's interlocutors, the Kremlin's minimum demand will be the withdrawal of troops and weapons from five alliance countries bordering Russia: Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Finland and Estonia. The West stressed it had no intention of making concessions to Putin on the issue.
Accounts differ: The Moscow Times calls Medinsky a hardliner and cites his statements that Ukraine must accept Moscow's terms; other details of the Russian delegation's position have not been disclosed. Who will represent France and in what format has not been reported.