French President Emmanuel Macron convened a second European allies emergency meeting on Wednesday in an attempt to recalibrate relations with the United States as President Trump subverts international politics by rapidly changing the American coalition.
After Mr. Trump and his new team irritated and confused traditional American allies, Mr. Macron has held twelve European leaders in Paris, suggesting that the United States will quickly retreat from its security role in Europe and plans to continue Conduct peace negotiations. With Russia – No European or Ukrainian dining table.
Mr. Trump’s remarks late Tuesday, when he fully supported Russia’s narrative, accusing Ukraine of blaming Ukraine for the war, now gives the impression that the United States is ready to abandon its role as a European ally, and Turn to support President Vladimir V. Putin V. Putin Russia.
This completely reversed the historical alliance, and many in Europe were shocked and feared.
“What happened was a very bad. It’s a reversal of the world since 1945,” French Foreign Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said on Radio France on Wednesday morning.
“It’s his safety,” he said in reference to President Trump. “We have to wake up.”
Worried that Mr. Trump was ready to give up Ukraine and accept Russian conversation points in Eastern and Central Europe, where memories were long and painful, the West in 1938 pacifying Hitler’s efforts in Munich and agreed to Stalin’s request in 1945 The Yalta conference is divided into two parts due to Europe.
Lech Walesa, the Polish MP and son of Poland’s anti-community Solidarity union, said on social media on Wednesday: “Even Polish betrayal in Yalta lasts longer than Ukraine’s betrayal in Riyadh than in Riyadh. longer. ” Tuesday in Saudi Arabia.
Rasa Jukneviciene, the current Lithuanian Defense Minister, is now a member of the European Parliament, said the once reliable European security pillar of the United States is “hard to understand” the sudden shift in the once reliable European security pillar of the United States. She said she “wanted to know what historians will write about this event in fifty years.”
“It’s obvious that the European Atlantic connection will be different from before,” she said. “The stage of European security after World War II can basically be guaranteed by the United States.”
She added that Europe “has once again faced survival challenges”, similar to the 1938 British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain meeting Hitler in Munich and agreed to him annex parts of Czechoslovakia, with Germany’s huge population.
In a power vacuum, Mr. Macron tried to show leadership and get the Allied leaders to respond uniformly.
Olisi Palace announced that he will hold his second emergency meeting on Wednesday, with many of the European leaders not included on Monday. These include Romania’s interim president Ilie Bolojan, who will attend in person, while other leaders from Finland, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, Sweden and Belgium plan to participate via video.
The meeting was the second day after Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with Russian representatives, including Foreign Minister Sergei V., who was not invited.
Mr Rubio said they had a three-part plan that would first rebuild bilateral relations between Washington and Moscow and finally explore a new partnership between Russia and the United States – geopolitics and business, while also solving a Parameters and the war between Ukraine ended.
Mr Rubio said he would negotiate with Ukraine, “a partner of Europe and others”, but in the end, “ultimately, the Russian side will be essential.”
Since then, President Trump told reporters at Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida that despite Russia’s invasion of the war, it was blamed on Ukraine for launching the war.
“You could have reached a deal,” he said, devaluing President Zelensky’s popularity and showing that he shouldn’t be on the negotiating table.
“Well, they have three years of seats. It’s been a long time before that,” Mr. Trump said. “It could have been easy to resolve. I think only half-mature negotiators would have settled this year without losing much land, very little land. No life. And, no loss is just lying on the cities on either side of them .”
Mr. Trump’s remarks accused Ukraine of arousing anger in the Czech Republic, which has been a staunch supporter of Ukraine. “I’m afraid we have never been like Orwell’s war is peace, freedom is slavery, and ignorance is strength,” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said on social media.
Mr. Le Drian called it a terrible reversal of the World League and a “reversal of the truth.”
“The victims became attackers,” he said, adding that the United States seemed to be retreating to the 19th century viewpoint and told an aggressive expansionist Russia to do what Europe wanted. “This is the strongest law, tomorrow may be Moldavia, and tomorrow after tomorrow, maybe Estonia, because Putin will not stop,” he said.
Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, also compared the Riyadh meeting with the talks held in Munich in 1938. “All of this paves the way for the invaders to achieve their new plan of conquest,” he said.
Ahead of Mr. Rubio and President Trump’s statement on Tuesday, Mr. Macron said he not only considered Russia’s threat to Europe in a military manner, but also used cunning means, including cyber attacks and manipulation of election processes such as Romania.
“Russia poses an existential threat to Europeans,” Macron said in an interview with French regional newspapers, including Le Parisen and Ouest France on Tuesday.
He added: “Don’t think that it’s impossible to happen, including the worst of all.”
Twelve European leaders quickly organized a meeting in Paris on Monday and sent a huge message that Europeans and Ukrainians need to be included in any peace talks with Russia and promised to increase military funding.
Many have made it clear that they want to maintain a sustained alliance with the United States, which they believe is essential for European security.
“The positive message is that we all feel the same way, it has nothing to do with the United States or Europe, but about the United States and Europe, and Europe knows very well that we have to step up, but we still want to do it with the Americans. “Dick Schoof, the Dutch Prime Minister, said.
Mr. Trump’s latest statement poured water on many emotions and could now force European leaders to rethink the transatlantic alliance more deeply.
Mr Macron has spoken with European leaders for months about the establishment of a ceasefire buffer force in Ukraine and has long called for strategic autonomy in Europe. Nevertheless, he told the French regional news media that he did not believe that European countries could defend themselves without the support of the United States.
He said he hopes European countries can increase their military budgets and announce new plans so they can do it “as early as March.”
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has announced in her speech that she will propose “defense investment escape clauses” that allow states to fund defense without violating EU strict fiscal rules, The rule is designed to keep the budget deficit below 3% of the economy of each country.
“This will greatly increase its defense spending among member states,” she said.
Europeans are also discussing joint spending on defense – including how to finance those that may involve issuing joint debt, although this still needs debate. They are also talking about how to improve the development of European defense industry.
Martin Quencez, director of the Paris office of the Marshall Foundation in Germany, said Europe’s firm stance appears to be changing over the past week.
The biggest question, he said, is whether European countries follow increased military spending and maintain a united front without breaking down to negotiate separately with Trump.
“I have heard of Europe wake up calls multiple times over the past decade,” he said, noting that many European leaders, including Mr. Macron, found themselves in a fragile political and economic position in their own country.
“I’m sure we’ll hear from every European leader, but let’s see what actual decisions have been made,” he said, adding: “Telling your population is very, very difficult. Choosing to prioritize Europe is Security, social or environmental issues. Not much government has political capital to spend on all of this.”
Poland, the largest and most military-strong country in the former communist eastern region of the EU, sought on Tuesday night to calm the panic after the Saudi Arabia talks were over.
That day, Mr. Trump visited President Andrzej Duda in Warsaw for special envoys against Ukraine and Russia. Polish leader said Mr. Kellogg assured him: “The United States has absolutely no intention to reduce activities in Europe, especially in the security field, to reduce the number of American soldiers.”
The United States has thousands of soldiers in Poland and opened a new missile defense facility near the Baltic Sea in November, which Russia sees as a threat to its own security. Mr. Putin’s long-term need is to get Washington to close Polish websites and similar locations in Romania.
Jeanna Smialek Brussels report
