In a review of yesterday’s meeting in Paris on Ukraine with U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Special Envoy Steve Witkoff, the Brussels-centered Euractiv media reports on the shift involved in Trump administration representatives meeting for the first time with Europeans (France, U.K. and Germany—the E3 format), along with Ukraine. Until now, the U.S. meetings on Ukraine have been bilateral with the Russians, and the Europeans had been left outside looking in.
Euractiv notes that there is disquiet in Europe, however. Even as the French President hosted U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff in Paris yesterday, “European diplomats have begun to question what is really being negotiated between the U.S. and Russia: A ceasefire for Ukraine, or a normalization of the U.S.-Russia relationship?”
Euractiv quotes Nico Lange, non-resident senior fellow at the Centre for European Policy Analysis: “The real danger is that we are focusing on the alleged negotiation process, while there might not be a negotiation process at all, while Russia continues the war.”
“A key to this moving forward will be how Europeans are deciding the question whether the security of Ukraine and European security are the same thing or two different questions,” Lange said. “For countries like Estonia, Denmark and Czechia, the answer is clear. But Germany’s stance—under a new and untested government—may prove decisive.”
This points to the reason why many Europeans have not been jumping for joy about the U.S. turn for peace under the new Trump administration. They consider the Ukraine war as the only negotiating chip for the European war-party in the current strategic shift between the U.S. and Russia. The more Germany and other nations in Europe can be convinced and mobilized to join with those seeking a just peace, the more Europe as a whole can be broken free from the current nightmare.
