PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron is back at the center of global diplomacy, seeking to ease relations with President Donald Trump, championing a Ukraine peace plan alongside his British counterpart, and seeing his longstanding desire to boost European defense turning into reality .

The breakdown in U.S.-Ukraine ties has given new urgency to the two European nuclear powers' efforts to pull together ideas for a peace plan that would initially outline a short truce but also eventually include broader security guarantees. Britain and France have both said the U.S. would be needed for future assurances.

The leaders of France and Britain are making tag-team visits to Washington this week. It's part of European efforts to persuade President Donald Trump not to abandon Ukraine in pursuit of a peace deal in the three-year-old war with Russia.

France has handed control of two military facilities to Senegal, beginning the formal process of withdrawing its military presence from the West African country amid its waning influence in the region

A pillar of French sovereignty and source of national pride, France’s nuclear deterrent has long served as a symbol of the country’s independence from Washington. But as Europe’s faith in American

"In the current situation, the French and British nuclear forces are a complement to U.S. extended deterrence, but they would not constitute a viable solution in the event of an abrupt withdrawal of U.S. nuclear forces," the Washington-based Centre for Strategic & International Studies said.

To face that threat without the United States, Macron said he had decided to open a strategic debate on expanding France's nuclear deterrent to protect the country's European allies — something incoming German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has also advocated.

Keir Starmer revealed his outline of the plan to end the war, with France and the U.K. constructing a "coalition of the willing" to offer security to Ukraine.