France, Feb. 20 -- President Emmanuel Macron will gather the leaders of his country's political parties on Thursday in Paris to discuss the issues in Ukraine and possible increases in defence spending.

The meeting at the Elysee Palace with representatives from across the political spectrum comes as the American and Russian presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin posture to construct a peace deal for Ukraine without input from their Ukrainian counterpart Vlodymyr Zelensky as well as the European Union.

On Wednesday, Macron concluded two days of meetings European leaders. He emerged from those talks to declare that there was astrong convergence in saying that Russia constituted an existential threat to Europeans.

"We want a lasting an...