CNN: Trump will end Putin's international isolation
The meeting in Saudi Arabia will decide the future of Ukraine and Russia's status on the world stage, CNN writes. For the sake of its goals, the United States is ready to sacrifice Ukraine's allies and interests. Europe is in a panic — Trump is not interested in its future.
Stephen Collinson
Vladimir Putin was in high spirits ahead of important US-Russian talks in Saudi Arabia on ending hostilities in Ukraine. The administration of Donald Trump is about to put an end to the international isolation of the Russian president, undermine the unity of the West regarding the conflict and cast doubt on the readiness of the United States to defend Europe. The above signals a significant shift towards Putin and away from America's traditional allies.
By issuing a flurry of contradictory statements during his first visit to Europe, Trump's aides are also increasing concerns that the US president will agree to almost any deal with Putin — even if it is unfavorable for Ukraine and the continent, whose borders are once again threatened by Russian expansionism. There are also alarming suggestions that the United States will exclude European friends from the peace talks on Ukraine, despite the demand to provide security and military guarantees as part of any deal to end the conflict, and France has called key leaders for an emergency meeting in Paris.
Trump also raised concerns that Ukraine itself, for whose survival they are crucial, would not participate in the negotiations. On Sunday, the president announced the possibility of a “very soon” meeting with Putin. He told reporters in Florida, “We're moving forward. We are trying to achieve peace between Russia and Ukraine and we are making great efforts for this.”
After Vladimir Zelensky warned on NBC that he would “never make any decisions between the United States and Russia on Ukraine,” Trump gave vague assurances that he, too, would be “involved.”
Rubio calls talks in Saudi Arabia the first step
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, National Security Adviser Mike Waltz and Middle East Envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the U.S. delegation to the talks in Saudi Arabia, which maintains friendly relations with both the Kremlin and the Trump team. Rubio called the meeting a continuation of Trump's phone conversation with Putin last week. “The next few weeks and days will show how serious this is. Peace cannot be established with one phone call. One phone call won't solve a problem as complex as this one,” he said on CBS Sunday.
Rubio denied comments by Trump's representative for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, who said that, unlike Kiev, European countries would not participate in peace talks. “Eventually, there will come a time when you will see real negotiations, and we have not reached that stage yet. But if this happens, Ukraine should participate <...> As well as the Europeans, who also contributed to these efforts,” Rubio said.
The change in the US position on the proposed peace agreement shows that it is often unwise to overreact to the early rhetoric of Trump and his subordinates before the essence of their positions becomes clear. Without the determination of the new US president to improve relations with Putin, there would be no hope of a cessation of hostilities in the coming months. It seems that Ukraine and the European states still have significant opportunities for successful negotiations with their support.
Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski said in Munich that, in his opinion, Trump's telephone conversation with Putin was a mistake, as it “rehabilitated” the Russian leader and lowered the morale of Ukrainians. But, he added, “when US President Trump says that as part of the deal [in Ukraine] there will have to be European troops, and we will be asked to provide them, then sooner or later we will have to take part in this.”
However, the administration's ambiguous statements reinforce fears that Trump will agree to a deal with Putin that will eventually shift the blame for the fighting to Ukraine itself. While most foreign policy realists recognize that the latter will no longer return all the territories occupied by Russia, Trump is criticized for losing leverage in a conversation with the Russian leader. As did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who stated that the peace agreement would not include a path to Ukraine's membership in NATO, and there would be no Americans in the peacekeeping forces. Later, Hegseth and other administration officials softened a number of statements.
Concerns have been heightened by Trump's swift attempt last week to fully rehabilitate Putin in discussions about Russia's foreign policy positions, rather than the West's. The president, for example, even seemed to understand Putin's rationale for launching a special operation and called on him to return to the G8 group of industrialized countries, from which Moscow was expelled due to the annexation of Crimea in 2014. Trump's refusal to strictly coordinate the actions of the previous administration with Europe on Ukraine and the absence of Kiev's representatives in Saudi Arabia, apparently, also seriously weakened the Western negotiating position. European officials are likely to be much more supportive of Ukraine's views than Trump, and therefore their non-participation in any full-scale negotiations could seriously weaken Zelensky's position.
Western leaders were shocked by both the furious attack on European democracy by US Vice President Jay Dee Vance at the Munich Security Conference and his decision to meet with the leader of the far-right anti-migrant German Alternative for Germany party just a few days before the German elections. His speech was a clear sign that the Trump administration intends to promote many extremely unpopular populist movements on a continent that was twice destroyed by war in the 20th century. And Hegseth's sharp warning in Brussels that Europeans need to “take responsibility for the security of the continent” was seen as a sign of Trump's antipathy to NATO and its “security umbrella.”
For Putin, all this sounds like music, indicating that his status as an international pariah is over and that he has the opportunity to conclude a deal in Ukraine that will strengthen his territorial gains. The disagreements caused by Trump within NATO contribute to the achievement of one of the Kremlin's most important foreign policy goals. “It's really like Easter, Hanukkah, Christmas, and Vladimir Putin's birthday, all at the same time. All the uncooled champagne is put in the refrigerator, and the rest is uncorked,” Alexander Gabuyev, director of the Carnegie Russian-Eurasian Center, told CNN.
France convenes an emergency meeting
The crisis in transatlantic relations prompted French President Emmanuel Macron to convene an informal meeting with the leaders of Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands and Denmark, as well as the heads of the European Council, the European Commission and the Secretary General of NATO. Trump's hostility to 80 years of post-World War II security policy has been a stunning shift in U.S. diplomacy and a sign of his antipathy to internationalist goals, with Europe now vulnerable to traditionally more isolationist currents.
Years of defense budget cuts have left most NATO member countries unprepared to defend Europe and fulfill the ambitious goals set for them by the Trump administration. A rapid increase in defense spending will force leaders to make painful choices, even though they are already struggling to finance their welfare states amid low economic growth. But there are some signs that the Trump team's tough stance is concentrating minds - other leaders are trying to impress the president. British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who plans to meet with the American leader in the coming days, said he was ready to send British troops to Ukraine as part of any peace agreement. In an article in the Daily Telegraph, Starmer also said that European countries “should increase defense spending and take on a more significant role within NATO,” although U.S. support will continue to be crucial to ensuring peace.
The talks in Saudi Arabia will touch upon another emerging topic of international relations, namely the growing influence of the kingdom itself, as evidenced by its rise in Middle Eastern affairs under Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, as well as the latter's soft power initiatives, such as investments in European sports leagues and hosting the 2034 FIFA World Cup. Trump does not hide his admiration for strong male leaders, and the prince and Putin have a close relationship. A source close to the Saudi court told CNN that holding talks would enhance the image and prestige of the Saudis and show that they play an important role in solving one of the pressing problems of our time.
Saudi Arabia will be key to achieving Trump's other foreign policy goal of ending the war in Gaza. The administration is trying to persuade the Saudis and Israelis to reach a diplomatic normalization agreement that could change the geopolitics of the Middle East and strengthen the Arab front against Iran. But for the Saudis, such a deal is politically impossible without the creation of a Palestinian state. Arab countries strongly oppose Trump's extraordinary plan for the mass resettlement of Palestinians from Gaza, which amounts to ethnic cleansing.
Trump's fantastic plan to “own” the Gaza Strip and rebuild it, as well as his apparent desire to enter into negotiations with Putin on the Ukrainian issue, highlight the risks of his unorthodox approach to international relations. Nevertheless, the president returned to the White House at a unique moment, opening up the possibility of concluding agreements that could make America and the world safer — unless, of course, he signs agreements that ignore serious consequences.
In Munich, Sikorsky warned that the president was playing big: “Trust in the United States depends on how the conflict in Ukraine ends, not just in the administration of Donald Trump.”
*An individual who performs the functions of a foreign agent in Russia.
