CNN
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Vladimir Putin appears ahead of Tuesday’s critical US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia to end the Ukrainian war.
Donald Trump’s administration ends the Russian president’s international isolation, shatters Western unity over conflict, raises doubts about how far the US will go to protect Europe, and the surprising changes to Putin and American traditional He has left his allies.
A surge in conflicting statements in its first foray into Europe has encouraged concerns that the US president would accept almost every deal with Putin. .
Proposals that the US will exclude European friends from peace negotiations over Ukraine – in the capital of the continent, despite demanding that security guarantees and troops be provided as part of a contract to end the war They will meet in Paris on Monday as France raises alarms and calls key leaders for emergency situations.
Trump also feared that Ukraine itself is not part of a critical consultation for its country’s survival after its sovereign territory was invaded by its totalitarian neighbours who caused war crimes, civilian massacres and destruction. It caused it.
The president raised the prospect of a meeting with Putin on Sunday “soon.” He told reporters in Florida: We are trying to achieve peace with Russia and Ukraine and are working very hard on it. ”
After Ukrainian President Voldimia Zelensky warned that he would “meet the media” NBC, he warned that he would “never accept any decisions between the US and Russia regarding Ukraine.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security adviser Mike Waltz and Middle Eastern envoy Steve Witkov will lead the US delegation for talks hosted by Saudi Arabia, friendly to both Moscow and the Trump team.
Rubio styled the meeting last week as a follow-up to Trump’s phone call with Putin. “The next few weeks and days will determine whether it’s serious or not,” he said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “In the end, one call won’t settle. One call won’t solve a more complicated war.”
Rubio also contradicted comments by Trump’s Ukrainian envoy Keith Kellogg, saying on Saturday that Kiev was involved in peace talks, but European countries wouldn’t. “If it’s a real negotiation, and we’re not there yet — but if that happens, Ukraine is an invasion and Europeans have to be involved because they have sanctions. , Ukraine would have to be involved, likewise with Putin and Russia, they contributed to this effort,” Rubio said.
The evolving US line of proposed peace agreements shows that it is often unwise to overreact to the early rhetoric of Trump and his men before the contents of their positions are trapped. Please hope a little bit of ending the vicious war in the coming months. And it appears there is still considerable space for Ukraine and European states to shape negotiations that can only be fully successful through buy-in.
Polish foreign minister Radek Sikorski said over the weekend in Munich that Trump’s call with Putin was a mistake as it “proves” Russian leaders and lowered the morale of Ukraine. However, he added: “When President Trump says he has to be in the European army as part of the contract, we have to be asked to supply them, so sooner or later we need to get involved.”
Still, the mixed messages from the administration promote concerns that Trump will examine illegal aggression and agree to a deal with Putin, which imposes it on Ukraine. Most foreign policy realists accept that Ukraine will not reclaim all the land seized by Russia, but Trump has been criticized for abandoning leverage in a call with Russian leadership. Defense Secretary Pete Hegses said the peace deal does not include the path to Ukraine’s NATO membership and that US peacekeeping forces will not be involved. Some of these statements were later despised by Hegses and other administrators.
When he promoted a Russian foreign policy position rather than the West, concerns were exacerbated last week by Trump’s attempts to fully rehabilitate Putin, accused war criminal. For example, the president appears to have sympathy for Putin’s rationale for invasion, calling for a return to the G8 group of developed countries after Russia was kicked out over the annexation of Crimea in 2014. The absence of Kiev negotiators from Saudi Arabia’s talks on Ukraine also appeared to seriously undermine the Western negotiation position. European officials are likely to be far more sympathetic to Ukrainian views than Trump. Therefore, if they lack serious negotiations, Zelensky’s position could be significantly reduced.
His burning attack on European democracy by Vice President JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference and his decision to meet the leader of the far-right anti-immigrant AFD party a few days before the German elections, shook European leaders during that time. Ta. The speech was a clear indication that the Trump administration was intended to promote the many populist movements that are evoking dark echoes on a continent that was destroyed twice by war in the 20th century. And last week’s blunt warning from Hegses in Brussels was that Europeans had to “take ownership of traditional security on the continent” as a sign of Trump’s resentment against NATO and its security umbrella. It was widely viewed.
This is all music for Putin’s ears. This is because he suggests that his international pariah status has ended and is making a deal over Ukraine, which solidifies the profits of his territory. The Trump-opened division offers NATO one of Russia’s most important foreign policy goals.
“It’s true, like Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas, (() Vladimir Putin’s birthday, everything happens in one day,” said Alexander Gabwev, director of the Carnegie Russian Eurasia Centre, on Sunday’s CNN. He told Bianagorodriga: “Any champagne that has not been cooled is brought into the fridge, and no other bottles are removed.”
Due to the crisis of transatlantic relations, French President Emmanuel Macron on Monday also announced that he was also involved in leaders from Germany, Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Danish, as well as heads of the Council of Europe, the European Commission and NATO. I urged them to call for a meeting. Secretary-General.
Trump’s hostility towards security policies in the 80th post-World War II was a spectacular change in US policy and a sign of his resentment towards the goals of internationalism, but Europe became more isolated in American policy. It has remained vulnerable to more isolated flows. DNA.
A long-stumped defense budget has left most non-US NATO members not fully prepared for the challenges of defending Europe and the dominant role the Trump administration is currently demanding. A rapid increase in defence spending means painful choices for leaders who are already struggling to raise funds for the welfare state and are hampered by a low-growth economy.
But there are already some indications that the Trump administration’s hardliners’ position is focused when leaders try to impress the president. British Prime Minister Kiel Starmer said he plans to meet with Trump in the next few days and is willing to send British troops to Ukraine as part of the peace deal. The priorities written in Monday’s Daily Telegraph also stated that European countries “need to increase our defense spending and take on a bigger role in NATO,” but US support is to ensure peace He added that it is still important.
The talks in Saudi Arabia also include another evolving theme in international relations: increasing strengthening the kingdom – an increase in role under the Middle Eastern Prince Mohammed bin Salman and soft powers such as investment in Europe. It is proven by both initiatives. Hosts of the Sports League and the 2034 FIFA World Cup.
Trump keeps his praise for the leader of strong men a secret, and the prince and Putin have a tough relationship. A source close to the Saudi court told CNN’s Alex Marquardt that hosting consultations will strengthen Saudi Arabia’s image, raise fame and show that he will become a player in one of the top issues of the day.
Saudi Arabia is essential to another Trump foreign policy goal. End the war in Gaza. The administration is trying to access Saudi Arabia and Israelis towards a diplomatic regularization agreement that could restructure Middle Eastern geopolitics and solidify the Arab front against Iran. However, such a transaction is politically impossible for Saudi Arabia without a path to a state for the Palestinians. And the Arab countries worked so hard to push back against Trump’s extraordinary plan to gather Palestinians from Gaza, which amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Trump’s fantastic plan for the US to “own” and redevelop Gaza, and his apparent desire to take part in a meeting with Putin in Ukraine, is the risk of his unorthodox approach to diplomacy It emphasizes. But the President is the White House B ACK at a unique moment that offers the opportunity to pursue an agreement that could make America and the world safer. That is, unless he has ignored the meaning of serious security.
Sikorsky warned in Munich that the president is playing for a large-scale interest.
“The credibility of the United States depends on how this war (in Ukraine) ends: not just the Trump administration, but the United States itself.”
