The war in Ukraine revived the NATO of the “brain death” that Emmanuel Macron had diagnosed in 2019. Vladimir Putin’s attack reactivated the allies against an enemy who had been latent for decades. The Atlantic Alliance was recomposed to defend, to the extent of its possibilities, to Ukraine of its aggressor and reaffirmed the path of adhesion already marked at the Bucharest summit of 2008. The EU also entered the ‘war mode’. But three years later of the invasion the coup on the geopolitical board that Donald Trump has given, added to the divisions that have been given in the old continent during all this time and the exit of the United Kingdom, the operation of the historical multilateral organizations is in doubt and the ‘coalitions of the will’ proliferate to respond to the current challenge.
Trump has dynamited NATO’s strategy (and the EU) regarding war in Ukraine by lowering expectations before a possible negotiation with Putin. He did it at the first interministerial meeting of the allies in Brussels since the start of his new mandate through the Secretary of State, Pete Hegseth, who in a brief speech reduced the conditions for Russia by closing the door of NATO to Ukraine and recognize that he had to give up the occupied territories, such as Crimea and Donbás. He also anticipated the US disconnection regarding the security of Europe, which has depended for decades of Washington.
From there, the displays to the European Union have been the constant: threats of tariffs, marginalization at the beginning of conversations with Putin about Ukraine, planting the head of European diplomacy when he was already in Washington to meet with his counter 5 of its founding letter, which was only activated after the 11S attacks) if they do not increase military spending.
The EU thus faces a huge problem with its most important partner, but does it with internal cracks that harm the step to action. That has forced European governments to make ‘war’ on the other hand. The last example was the decision to overcome Hungary’s veto to the conclusions of the European Council on Ukraine through a text seconded to 26. “A country that is isolated does not generate division,” said the president of the institution, António Costa, at the end of the meeting on Thursday.
“This is increasingly difficult. That is why in the new initiative we have also considered the ‘Volunteer Coalition’, so that a country cannot block everyone else, ”said the high representative before that appointment. However, the EU has been doing balance and giving wide sleeves to the imagination in its proposals to try to overcome the veto of the ultra -rightist Viktor Orbán, who has taken advantage of that ability to blackmail its partners in everything that had to do with Ukraine. Probably the time more striking was the one in which he went to the bathroom so that the rest of the heads of government gave the approval of the opening of negotiations with that country for their adherence to the EU.
To overcome the veto of Hungary, and also of Slovakia, in addition to overcoming the resistance of the so -called neutral (Ireland and Austria) is what is pushing the proliferation of ‘coalitions of will’ to respond to Ukraine before the new scenario. These are alliances regardless of the EU or NATO institutional architecture in which it is progressing in possible solutions.
One of the examples was that of Emmanuel Macron by calling a meeting of the so -called Weimar+ (France, Germany, Poland, Spain, Italy and the United Kingdom with the presence of the EU with Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa, in addition to the secretary general of NATO, Mark Rutte). In that appointment they addressed the need to increase military spending and formulas to guarantee security to Ukraine before a hypothetical agreement. The jealousy of some countries, mainly from the east of the EU, forced Macron to convene a second appointment.
The historic alliance of France and the United Kingdom
The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Keir Starmer, who is trying to “restart” the relations with the EU after Brexit, has found in the security issue the perfect scope for that reset. It is not uncommon, in any case, that this country is involved in military affairs since historically France and the United Kingdom have been the ones who have marked the pattern by having the main armies.
And now he is leading, along with Macron, the plans for Ukraine as well as contacts with Trump about it. Not in vain it has been Starmer who has baptized the initiative as a “coalition of will”, which retroaches the alliance that in 2003 led to the invasion of Iraq in the US defense.
Starmer expanded that ‘coalition of will to the Netherlands, Sweden, Finland, Norway, Czech Republic, Romania, Canada and Türkiye. And with those wicker he began working in a peace proposal with Zelenski that can be worth Trump and also in the day after the war through the deployment of troops. The alliance with these countries was also evidenced this Friday in a videoconference in which the president of the European Council informed the heads of government of Turkey, the United Kingdom, Canada, Norway and Iceland of the results of the meeting of the 27 the eve.
According to community sources, in that appointment “they made special emphasis on the importance of cooperation with NATO partners of related ideas, both in terms of support to Ukraine and to guarantee a fair and lasting peace, as in terms of European security and defense”, but that reinforced cooperation has to be apart from traditional structures by Trump’s challenge and division. But community sources value precisely the will of these countries to collaborate with the EU.
The works also advance at the technical level. Beyond the leaders of the leaders, France has summoned a meeting of the Chiefs of Staff of the countries that are willing to participate in the security guarantees for Ukraine. As Macron explained after Thursday, that forum will allow the first “exploratory conversations” at the technical level of the countries willing to send troops to ensure that an eventual peace agreement is respected by Russia. “All countries are invited,” said the French president, who specified the presence of some US military representative or NATO’s military command: “We try to avoid a high fire that is negotiated quickly and without guarantees,” the EFE agency collects.
The Jemad will attend that meeting, although Pedro Sánchez has emphasized that it is “premature” to address that issue when the war continues. However, the debate is advancing both inside and outside the EU with the great unknown of what Trump will do and the doubt of whether only Europeans are able to defend themselves and guarantee security to Ukraine.
Source: www.eldiario.es
