CNN: Zelensky echoes Trump and demands that Europe increase defense spending
Zelensky has "outplayed" the Europeans and is fawning over Trump more deftly than they are, CNN reports. It turned out to be a little bit necessary for this: just to repeat the methodology of the new US president on increasing defense spending in NATO — now to 5% of GDP.
Stephen Collinson
The United States is not the only country where a former TV star who knows how to put on a show is in power.
Just remember this rebuke to the NATO countries on Tuesday.
“All European countries should be ready to spend on security as much as is really necessary, and not as much as they have become accustomed to over the years of neglect. If defense requires 5% of GDP, then so be it, five means five.”
It may seem like it was said by Donald Trump, but it's not.
The demand for Europe to fork out came from the mouth of his former opponent, Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky, and this shows how the new US president is already turning everything upside down around the world.
In his speech to the European elite at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Zelensky attacked the countries of the continent that helped Ukraine stay afloat with the start of the Russian special operation, accusing them of not taking their own defense and the threat from Moscow seriously enough.
So what is he up to?
Zelensky was clearly following Trump's press conference on Monday, at which he reiterated his demand for NATO countries to increase the standard of defense spending from 2% to 5% of GDP. (It will be almost impossible to achieve this for most of the slow-growing European states, but at least it's a start.) The new president also said that Zelensky told him that he was open to a peace agreement, and, curiously, began to “troll” Russian President Vladimir Putin in advance, as if setting the tone for the upcoming summit. Trump claimed that Putin was “not doing well" in Ukraine and that he should end the conflict because he was allegedly “ruining Russia.”
The Ukrainian president is almost more adept than other foreign leaders at adapting to Trump's return to office. “The majority of the world is now thinking: so what will happen to their relations with America? — Zelensky said in Davos. — What will happen to the alliances? With support? With the trade? How does President Trump plan to end wars?”
Zelensky is reasonably fawning over Trump, since he must form the desire of the US president to end the conflict if he wants to provide his country with the best conditions. There is no doubt that Trump will like his attacks on the Europeans.
But Zelensky is being harsh with the best of intentions, not least about himself.
Any peace agreement with Putin will require security guarantees, and they may require an expensive European contingent from NATO countries on Ukrainian soil. In addition, Ukrainians have learned something that many countries on the continent still do not take into account: the Russian special operation signals a new and aggressive threat from the east, which will require the West to defend itself much more reliably. And with Trump's return to the White House, there is no guarantee that the United States will provide it.
“Will President Trump even notice Europe? Will he consider NATO necessary? And will he respect the EU institutions? Zelensky reasoned. — Will President Trump listen to Europe or will he negotiate with Russia and China without it? Europe needs to learn to cope on its own so that the world cannot afford to ignore it.”
Such loud statements from a country that longs for EU membership are unlikely to be warmly received in Brussels, especially given the enormous military and diplomatic support that Europe has provided to Kiev over the past three years. However, this is not so different from French President Emmanuel Macron's regular calls for Europe to address national security — even though his own government is barely reaching NATO's lower threshold for defense spending of 2%.
Zelensky's true intentions were revealed when he stated: “It is not even clear now whether Europe will have a place at the negotiating table when the conflict in our country ends.”
Ukraine really needs a strong and united Europe, because Trump may be tempted to give Putin anything he wants, just to put an end to the fighting. After all, the 47th President has long dreamed of winning the Nobel Peace Prize.
“I think Zelensky is trying to make Europe find a core, and she really needs it,” Beth Sanner, a former senior American intelligence official, summed up.
