Trump understands Europe's role in peace negotiations and post-war processes - German expert

17.01.2025/12/00 XNUMX:XNUMX    249


Trump understands Europe's role in peace negotiations and post-war processes - German expert

Statements from Moscow that Russia will talk about Ukraine exclusively with the United States are unlikely to result in the exclusion of both Ukraine and European partners from the circle of negotiators, as the Trump administration will not be interested in this.

This opinion was expressed in a comment to Ukrinform by Constance Stelzenmüller, director of the Center for the United States and Europe at the Brookings Institution.

"I don't think that will happen. The Europeans have made it clear that there will be no discussions about Ukraine without Ukraine, and I think it is very unlikely that the White House under Donald Trump will participate in negotiations with Russia without the Europeans. So there is no need to fear that the Europeans will be excluded from the process," the expert said.

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At the same time, she suggested that Russia could try to talk to individual European countries, those they like more, but, again, these demands would remain without consequences.

According to Stelzenmüller, even the Trump administration realizes that they will need Europe's role in the ceasefire, in the reconstruction of Ukraine, in diplomacy, etc.

"It's hard for me to imagine Americans dealing only with Russians," the expert repeated.

She also noted that Trump is no longer talking about ending the war within 24 hours, but the 6-month deadline he mentioned is also “not very realistic.” The expert acknowledged that the question of whether the United States will stop military aid to Ukraine under the new administration worries many people. But, Stelzenmüller noted, Trump’s transition team has told European diplomats that they will continue military support for Kyiv. At the same time, Washington will expect the Europeans to spend much more on defense. It is currently difficult to predict specifically what the new American administration will do, not least because of the inconsistency of foreign policy preferences of different groups of the American “hard” right, the expert noted.

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When asked whether it can be expected that the next government might try to ease the sanctions against Russia that the Biden administration has imposed, including in recent days, Stelzenmüller did not rule out that this is possible for "the simple reason that there are many very powerful business interests behind Trump, and we do not know what their relationship is with Russian business interests."




"But I'm very glad that the Biden administration did it at the last moment and therefore set the bar very high. And, of course, everyone, including the media, interested think tanks, will be very closely watching what the Trump administration will do there. We can start checking the names of sanctioned enterprises," the agency's interlocutor said.

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As reported, in recent days, statements have been coming from Moscow that the Kremlin is ready to talk about Ukraine and the situation in Europe exclusively with Washington.


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