The leaders of most European governments, Canada and European Union institutions began to design this Sunday a possible peace mission for Ukraine and the foundations of a future defense architecture without the United States.
“It is a historical moment for security in Europe,” said British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, flanked by the French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the Ukrainian president, Volodimir Zelenski, and surrounded by more than a dozen leaders in London. “Getting a good result for Ukraine is not just a matter of what is correct and what is not: it is vital for the safety of each nation here and also for many others.”
In Lancaster House, a mansion in downtown London where the Foreign Ministers of the first 12 members of NATO met in 1950, this Sunday the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Ukraine, Germany, Spain, Italy, Poland, Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Romania and Canada sat this Sunday. Also the Foreign Minister of Türkiye, the president of the European Commission, the president of the European Council and the NATO general secretary. Several governments talked about increasing spending in defense, technology and key infrastructure to defend Europe.
“Europe has woken up,” said Poland Prime Minister Donald Tusk, who insisted on strengthening the eastern flank of Europe and maintaining “transatlantic cooperation.” He also said that at the meeting, the leaders had commented on Friday’s attack on Zelenski in the White House “in a shady tone.”
After a dramatic week for European security, the United Kingdom and France, two military powers with nuclear deterrence, are offered to lead a “coalition” of volunteer countries to protect Ukraine while trying to maintain the relationship with Donald Trump. Starmer and Macron are working on a proposal with Zelenski to present Trump, who is negotiating directly with Russia and refuses to include Ukraine or other European countries in those conversations.
Macron explained in an interview with I trust him that the plan includes a one -month truce for air and sea attacks and against energy infrastructure while it continues to be negotiated. The idea does not refer to the attacks by land, according to Macron, because the front line is too wide. European troops would be deployed later, but this will not happen, according to Macron, “in the coming weeks.”
Starmer said after the meeting that the agreement will have in any case that “involving Russia”, but the Putin regime should not dictate the terms of security guarantees as in the past seen their history of no respect for the agreements with Ukraine: “That is precisely the situation we need to avoid this time, which is the reason we are here.”
He also commented that other countries will participate in the possible peace mission in addition to the United Kingdom and France and respect those who do not want or cannot do so. One of the “volunteer” countries can be Canada, whose prime minister, Justin Trudeau, said after the meeting that “all the options are on the table.” “Canada will be there and is open to do whatever it takes,” said Trudeau, who was also going to see King Carlos III to comment Trump’s expansionist occurrences.
Prime Minister Tusk said, in any case, that a more concrete plan to join is still missing. A spokesman for President Sánchez also stressed that at the moment they have only considered “options”, but said that there have been “important advances” and that Spain “supports strategic relfixion” and will continue to participate in it. Unlike other leaders, the Spanish president did not make statements to the press after the meeting.
Meanwhile, Starmer continues to convince Trump to offer some support to give “security guarantees” to Ukraine in the form of intelligence, surveillance or military aircraft information. But few European leaders are already fooled on Trump’s disinterest in the fate of their former allies and their proximity to Vladimir Putin.
Kremlin’s vision
In fact, the Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, presumed this Sunday of his tune with Trump and his team: “The new administration is quickly changing its foreign policy configurations. This greatly coincides with our vision, ”he said.
On Friday, the president of the United States and JD Vance, his vice president and who has a trajectory of hostility against Ukraine and other Europeans, threw Zelenski from the White House after abroading him before the cameras while the Ukrainian president tried to deny any of the bulls that repeated over his country or attacked him for not taking a suit. The Ukrainian president wanted to continue negotiating the agreement that the United States requested to keep the exploitation of minerals in his country and even offered to return to the White House that same day. Starmer tried to intercede without success.
The next day, the British prime minister welcomed Zelenski a very hot with a hug, good words and the signing of an agreement of more than 2.7 billion euros in help, in this case loans financed with the Russian goods frozen by the sanctions. The United Kingdom also announced another aid of about 1.9 billion euros to buy “more than 5,000 defense missiles” manufactured in Belfast, Northern Ireland, and destined to protect Ukrainian infrastructure.
After the summit in London, Zelenski was received by King Carlos III at his Campo de Sandringham home to show him his support. The monarch has invited Trump to a state visit, which would include Scotland, where the mother of the president of the United States was born, but there are online requests, tabloid campaigns and demands from Scottish politicians to withdraw the offer.
In an interview at the BBC, Starmer said he had felt “uncomfortable” before the scene in Washington and that “nobody” wants to “see something like that”, but avoided criticizing Trump and said that his attitude is always to “row” and look for a solution. When asked by the interviewer if Zelenski had done “something wrong,” Starmer replied forcefully: “No. This is a man whose country has been at war for three years. They have been invaded by Russia. This is a Russian aggression. ”
In a message on social networks written in the third person, Trump presumed this Sunday of being “a genius” that would force Zelenski to “give up.”
In a meeting with the press in London on Sunday night, the Ukrainian President explained that he had not left “nothing positive” of the confrontation and that his intention after 12 hours of train and 11 of flight was to negotiate what was needed. He also assured that “he would try” if they invite him to “discuss serious issues.”
Questioned about what happened when the cameras of the Oval Office left, Zelenski replied that some things is better to “leave them for history.”
European independence
But Starmer, like other leaders, tries to soften the relationship with the United States, among other things to gain time until Europe is more independent of its ally.
Alexander Stubb, the president of Finland, acknowledged that NATO is “changing” and is becoming “more transactional”, but said that the break between the United States and Europe only benefits Putin. Stubb was one of the great defenders of his country’s adhesion to the alliance before the threat of Moscow.
One of the clearest leaders in Europe on the new scenario has been the future German chancellor, conservative Friedrich Merz, that as soon as he won the elections he said that it must be assumed that NATO can or exist in its current form in June, when the next summit of leaders in The Hague is planned. Merz said the interference of vice president JD Vance and businessman and advisor Elon Musk in favor of the extreme right in the German elections was equivalent to what the Kremlin did.
“I would never have thought that I would say something like this on a television program, but after what Donald Trump said last week [en referencia al penúltimo ataque de Trump contra Zelenski] It is clear that this government does not care about the fate of Europe, ”Merz said at the round table of all candidates the night of the elections. “My absolute priority is to strengthen Europe as quickly as possible, step by step, until we can achieve independence from the United States.”
The London meeting attended only the still chancellor and his future coalition partner, Olaf Scholz. In their conversations to form a new government coalition, conservatives and social democrats are already talking about establishing two new funds to invest in defense and infrastructure, each of at least 400,000 million euros, according to the Reuters news agency.
Next Thursday, the heads of state and government of the EU will meet again in an extraordinary European council in Brussels, where they will discuss how to increase defense spending, both in their individual commitments and in common efforts. They also consider the appointment of an envoy that represents the EU in the negotiations between Trump and Putin, although any agreement that requires unanimity has the obstacle of the pro-ruse governments of Hungary and Slovakia.
“We urgently need to rearm Europe,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, at the exit of the meeting in London. “We have to accelerate a lot.”
“We cannot repeat Minsk’s experience,” said António Costa, the president of the European Council, in reference to the failed high fire in 2014. “We must learn from the past. We cannot repeat the tragedy of Afghanistan at all. For this we need a strong security guarantee. Getting peace goes hand in hand. ”
Source: www.eldiario.es
