Nobody knows exactly how President Donald Trump’s bid to end the war in Ukraine will work out, or whether he can fulfil his worthy ambition to save “millions of lives.” But here in Europe, one thing should be immediately clear. Trump’s direct overture to Russian President Vladimir Putin has exposed the irrelevance and impotence of the European Union, not only in wider global power politics, but in ending a bloody war on its own doorstep.
Trump’s call to Putin proposing that the two should work “very closely” together to achieve peace looks like an attempt to reassert America’s hegemony over international affairs. That will be tricky to achieve in an increasingly multi-polar world; as if to illustrate the point, when news broke of Trump’s overture to Putin, China was quick to throw its own hat in the ring as a potential peace-broker.
What Trump has already achieved, however, is to destroy the pretensions of the EU to be a major player. All of the big talk of Europe standing rock solid in support of Ukraine, and making no concessions to Putin’s Russia, has been revealed as empty political posturing.
As this truth dawned, there was an obvious sense of panic in Brussels, where a meeting of NATO defence ministers is being held this week. The Weimar Group, a defence association that includes the European Commission and leading EU members Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, alongside the UK, issued a hurried statement.
It declared that “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.” They are obviously right about Ukraine. Asked whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be directly involved in his peace talks, President Trumpe only replied: “Interesting question. I think they have to make peace.”
But any attempt by the big powers to impose a deal over the heads of the Ukrainians is unlikely to bring a lasting peace. Unless both Ukraine and Russia can seriously sign up to a real agreement, any paper deal seems more likely to be a prelude to another round of conflict.
The Weimar Group leaders are on shakier ground, however, when they claim that “Europe must be part of any negotiations.” Alongside former U.S. President Joe Biden, the EU has spent the three years since Russia invaded grandstanding about its promised support for Ukrainian sovereignty, yet without ever really putting military muscle where its mouth is.
Instead, former British Army Colonel Richard Kemp writes in the Daily Telegraph, “a self-deterring West, led by the vacillating former President Joe Biden, failed to provide Kyiv with sufficient arms or the freedom to use them to greatest effect—notably around its faltering 2023 counter-offensive.
The EU leaders’ tough talk now stands exposed as vacuous political virtue-signalling, largely for domestic consumption. Little wonder it looks to some as if they were pledged to fight to the last Ukrainian. Behind the braggadocio, there was never any prospect of NATO getting involved and escalating the conflict.
The future prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, which is a red line for Russia, has long been held out by Europe as the ultimate safeguard. Now Trump simply says it is not “practical.” EU foreign ministers are trying to insist that Ukraine’s NATO membership is “still on the table.” The pressing question for them, however, is whether they will be sitting at the negotiating table at all.
A bloody war like this cannot be managed by high-minded press releases and photo opportunities in Brussels. The EU’s posturing has only served to raise the stakes and make matters even worse on the ground in Ukraine.
On the other hand, ordinary Ukrainians’ brave resistance against the Russian invasion of their homeland has highlighted once again the need for people to defend their own national sovereignty. That is a lesson we should all take to heart.
From Israel to Ukraine, we live in a world of conflict where, as President Trump has demonstrated in his first weeks in office, the old, failed rules and nostrums need no longer apply. To be prepared for the unexpected, the nations of Europe surely need to get their own defences in order now.
But that cannot mean putting trust in the Brussels elites and their talk of a centralised EU Army, or a bureaucratic defence union that drags in the UK.
Do we really want the empty vessels of EU politics, who made so much noise about standing with Ukraine until the end, to determine the defence of Europe’s borders? Would you trust an unelected Brussels bureaucrat such as “Queen” Ursula von der Leyen to decide Europe’s policies on war and peace, as she has effectively tried to do over Ukraine?
We cannot entrust our future to great powers or grandstanding globalists. Instead, let the sovereign states of Europe forge their own foreign and defence policies. And let us take inspiration from those such as the Israeli people who have shown that, if you want your nation to live in peace, you must sometimes be ready to stand up for it, no matter what the rest of the world might say.
Trump’s Ukraine Power Play Exposes EU Impotence
Andrew Caballero-Reynolds & Petras Malukas / AFP
Nobody knows exactly how President Donald Trump’s bid to end the war in Ukraine will work out, or whether he can fulfil his worthy ambition to save “millions of lives.” But here in Europe, one thing should be immediately clear. Trump’s direct overture to Russian President Vladimir Putin has exposed the irrelevance and impotence of the European Union, not only in wider global power politics, but in ending a bloody war on its own doorstep.
Trump’s call to Putin proposing that the two should work “very closely” together to achieve peace looks like an attempt to reassert America’s hegemony over international affairs. That will be tricky to achieve in an increasingly multi-polar world; as if to illustrate the point, when news broke of Trump’s overture to Putin, China was quick to throw its own hat in the ring as a potential peace-broker.
What Trump has already achieved, however, is to destroy the pretensions of the EU to be a major player. All of the big talk of Europe standing rock solid in support of Ukraine, and making no concessions to Putin’s Russia, has been revealed as empty political posturing.
As this truth dawned, there was an obvious sense of panic in Brussels, where a meeting of NATO defence ministers is being held this week. The Weimar Group, a defence association that includes the European Commission and leading EU members Germany, France, Italy, Spain, and Poland, alongside the UK, issued a hurried statement.
It declared that “Ukraine and Europe must be part of any negotiations.” They are obviously right about Ukraine. Asked whether Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky would be directly involved in his peace talks, President Trumpe only replied: “Interesting question. I think they have to make peace.”
But any attempt by the big powers to impose a deal over the heads of the Ukrainians is unlikely to bring a lasting peace. Unless both Ukraine and Russia can seriously sign up to a real agreement, any paper deal seems more likely to be a prelude to another round of conflict.
The Weimar Group leaders are on shakier ground, however, when they claim that “Europe must be part of any negotiations.” Alongside former U.S. President Joe Biden, the EU has spent the three years since Russia invaded grandstanding about its promised support for Ukrainian sovereignty, yet without ever really putting military muscle where its mouth is.
Instead, former British Army Colonel Richard Kemp writes in the Daily Telegraph, “a self-deterring West, led by the vacillating former President Joe Biden, failed to provide Kyiv with sufficient arms or the freedom to use them to greatest effect—notably around its faltering 2023 counter-offensive.
The EU leaders’ tough talk now stands exposed as vacuous political virtue-signalling, largely for domestic consumption. Little wonder it looks to some as if they were pledged to fight to the last Ukrainian. Behind the braggadocio, there was never any prospect of NATO getting involved and escalating the conflict.
The future prospect of Ukraine joining NATO, which is a red line for Russia, has long been held out by Europe as the ultimate safeguard. Now Trump simply says it is not “practical.” EU foreign ministers are trying to insist that Ukraine’s NATO membership is “still on the table.” The pressing question for them, however, is whether they will be sitting at the negotiating table at all.
A bloody war like this cannot be managed by high-minded press releases and photo opportunities in Brussels. The EU’s posturing has only served to raise the stakes and make matters even worse on the ground in Ukraine.
On the other hand, ordinary Ukrainians’ brave resistance against the Russian invasion of their homeland has highlighted once again the need for people to defend their own national sovereignty. That is a lesson we should all take to heart.
From Israel to Ukraine, we live in a world of conflict where, as President Trump has demonstrated in his first weeks in office, the old, failed rules and nostrums need no longer apply. To be prepared for the unexpected, the nations of Europe surely need to get their own defences in order now.
But that cannot mean putting trust in the Brussels elites and their talk of a centralised EU Army, or a bureaucratic defence union that drags in the UK.
Do we really want the empty vessels of EU politics, who made so much noise about standing with Ukraine until the end, to determine the defence of Europe’s borders? Would you trust an unelected Brussels bureaucrat such as “Queen” Ursula von der Leyen to decide Europe’s policies on war and peace, as she has effectively tried to do over Ukraine?
We cannot entrust our future to great powers or grandstanding globalists. Instead, let the sovereign states of Europe forge their own foreign and defence policies. And let us take inspiration from those such as the Israeli people who have shown that, if you want your nation to live in peace, you must sometimes be ready to stand up for it, no matter what the rest of the world might say.
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