The future of Ukraine is the main element on the agenda at the Munich Security Conference after a telephone call between the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and the Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, when they pledged to work together for end the three -year Russian conflict.
The vice president of the United States, JD Vance, Hammered Home, the United States demand that the NATO alliance intensify defense expense on Friday, before a security meeting in Europe in a moment of intense concern and uncertainty about politics Trump administration exterior.
It is expected that Vance will meet with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, later on Friday for the conversations that many observers, particularly in Europe, expect at least some light about Trump's ideas for a negotiated agreement for war.
Vance began his day in Munich gathering separately with the general secretary of NATO Mark Rutte, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier and British Foreign Secretary David Lammy.
He used the commitments to reiterate the call of Trump's Republican administration so that NATO members spend more in defense. Currently, 23 of NATO's 32 members are reaching the objective of the Western Military Alliance of spending two percent of the GDP of the nation in defense.
“NATO is a very important military alliance, of course, of which we are the most important part,” Vance told Rutte.
“But we want to make sure that NATO is really built for the future, and we believe that a large part of that is to ensure that NATO does a little more shared load in Europe, so that the United States can focus on some of our challenges on Oriental Asia “.
Routte said he agreed that Europe needs to intensify.
“We have to grow in that regard and spend much more,” he said.
Trump, who overturned years of American support to Ukraine during his call with Putin on Wednesday, has been vague about his specific intentions, apart from suggesting that an agreement will probably be that Ukraine is forced to give up territory that Russia has taken since Annexa Crimea in 2014.
“The Ukraine War has to end,” Trump told journalists on Thursday. “Young people are being killed at levels that no one has seen since World War II. And it is a ridiculous war. “
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Trump's reflections have left Europeans in a dilemma, wondering how, or even if, they can maintain the security after World War II that NATO offered them or fill the gap in the billions of dollars of security assistance that the Biden Democratic Administration provided Ukraine from Russia. February 2022 Invasion.
Trump has been very skeptical about that aid and the court is expected to limit it as negotiations are launched in the next few days.
Both Trump and the US Secretary of Defense, Pete Hegseth, undermined Ukraine's hopes of becoming part of NATO, which the alliance said that less than a year ago was “irreversible”, or to recover its territory captured by Russia , which currently occupies about 20 for each Cent including Crimea.
“I don't see any way that a country in Russia's position can allow … to join NATO,” Trump said Thursday. “I don't see that happens.”
But British prime minister Keir Starmer told Zelenskyy on Friday that Ukraine should be able to join NATO.
Trump in recent days said he wants to reach an agreement with Ukraine to obtain access to the country's rare earth materials as a condition to continue the support of the United States to the defense of Ukraine against Russia. He confirmed earlier this week that attendees were working to reach such agreement.
When asked on Friday if an agreement could be completed in Munich, Vance replied: “We'll see.”
Vance, in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, said that the United States would arrive in Moscow with sanctions and a potentially military action if Putin does not agree with a peace agreement with Ukraine that guarantees the long -term independence of kyiv.
The warning that military options “remain on the table” was a surprising language of a Trump administration that has repeatedly underlined the desire to quickly end the war.
Zelenskyy will not accept agreements made without Ukraine.
The guarantees of the United States may have somehow dissipate Zelenskyy's fears, although they will not replace any lost military or economic support provided by the administration of President Joe Biden.
The Ukrainian leader admitted Thursday that “it was not very pleasant” that Trump spoke to Putin first. But he said that the main problem was “not allowing everything to agree with the Putin Plan.”
“We cannot accept it, as an independent country, any agreement (made) without us,” said Zelenskyy while visiting a nuclear energy plant in western Ukraine.
The song that Trump is also taking Europe, as well as his derogatory comments about France and Germany during his first mandate.
The French Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs, Benjamin Haddad, described Europe as in a turning point, with the ground changing quickly under his feet, and said that Europe must dismiss its dependence on the United States for their safety.
He warned that delivering a victory to Russia in Ukraine could also have repercussions in Asia.
“I think we are not understanding enough to the extent that our world is changing. Both our competitors and our allies are occupied by accelerating, ”Haddad told BroadCaster France Info on Thursday.
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