Zelensky stressed the importance of the United States giving a strong signal on security, noting that Ukraine would be happy if Trump could attend a possible trilateral meeting with him and Putin.

WASHINGTON, Aug. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. President Donald Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and seven European leaders held multilateral talks at the White House on Monday.

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, European Commission President Ursula Von der Leyen, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron attended the talks after a bilateral meeting between Trump and Zelensky on the same day.

In a speech to the media, Trump said Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to accept security guarantees for Ukraine, one of the key points that "we need to consider," adding that Putin wants to find an answer.

Zelensky stressed the importance of the United States giving a strong signal on security, noting that Ukraine would be happy if Trump could attend a possible trilateral meeting with him and Putin.

The Ukrainian leader said sensitive things, including the territorial issue, would be discussed at the trilateral meeting.

Trump said such a trilateral meeting should be held "as soon as we can."

The European leaders supported the idea of a ceasefire, saying that some progress could be made on security guarantees for Ukraine.

"I can't imagine that the next meeting will take place without a ceasefire," Merz said.

Macron floated the idea of a quadrilateral meeting that also involves the European side, saying that "when we speak about security guarantees, we speak about the whole security of the European continent."

The meetings on Monday took place after Trump and Putin met for nearly three hours in the U.S. state of Alaska on Friday. No deal was reached from the Friday meeting.  ■