Trump relies on Saudi Arabia to stop the war between Russia and Ukraine
- A resounding NO to Ukraine regaining its borders
- Saudi Arabia has Trump and Putin's trust to bring peace to Ukraine
The words that come out of Trump's mouth generate such multiplier effects that they immediately trigger a large number of tsunamis, floods, fires and hurricanes almost all over the world. The most recent have occurred in two important international forums, with the outspoken interventions of US Vice President James David Vance, 40, and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, 44.
What Trump's second-in-command, JD Vance, said over the weekend at the 61st Munich Security Conference, held from 14 to 16 February in the Bavarian capital, has caused such a number of seismic aftershocks of high magnitude on the Richter scale that telluric movements are still being felt even thousands of kilometres from the epicentre in Washington.
In front of dozens of heads of state, government, ministers, senior politicians and military commanders, Vance said in Germany that Trump is very clear that Europeans must play ‘a more important role’ in the future of the continent. ‘We don't believe it's about burden sharing, but about Europeans stepping up while the United States concentrates on areas of the world that are in great danger.’ And he added: ‘But how are they even going to start thinking about budgetary issues if many of Europe's citizens don't know exactly what it is they are defending?’
The new head of the US Department of Defense, war veteran Pete Hegseth, has also released huge amounts of energy in the form of hot lava in what he said on 13 February in Brussels. At the press conference following the meeting of NATO ministers, he said that ‘we can talk all we want about values. Values are important, but you can't shoot from the hip with values, you can't shoot from the hip with flags, or with forceful speeches. There is no substitute for hard power’.
A resounding NO to Ukraine regaining its borders
Before his appearance before the media after his first conclave with NATO defence ministers, Hegseth had surprised his allies by expressing the US refusal to invite Kiev to join the Alliance. But the biggest bombshell he dropped was that the US is against Ukraine being able to recover its borders prior to the Russian invasion. General confusion and astonished faces!
The President of the European Commission, the German Ursula von der Leyen, and the President of the European Council, the Portuguese Antonio Costa, now feel slighted by Washington, as do most of the leaders of the EU member states. So what is going to happen with Ukraine?
The fact is that, while the leaders and authorities of the European Union and the countries that are friends and allies of the United States in Europe have not yet recovered from a hurricane caused by Trump, they are already surprised and disturbed by a new shake-up in the White House. The result is that confusion is rife in the political, financial, strategic and social spheres of the Old Continent.
It is worth remembering that, until now, Brussels and most of the leaders of its 27 member nations have followed a policy of ‘follow the leader’ with the United States with regard to denying Vladimir Putin bread and salt and supporting Ukraine with huge quantities of weapons and equipment in the face of the illegal invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops. But Vice-President Vance assured them that the threat he is most concerned about with regard to Europe ‘is not Russia, nor China, nor any other external actor. What worries me is the threat from within’.
The fact that the White House has leaked that Washington's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Witkoff, and National Security Advisor Mike Waltz will meet in a few hours' time in the Saudi Arabian capital with their Moscow counterparts to stop the war on Ukrainian soil has caused President Volodimir Zelenski discomfort. Neither Trump nor Putin have included him at the negotiating table, at least not initially.
Saudi Arabia has Trump and Putin's trust to bring peace to Ukraine
The senior authorities in Brussels are just as angry, if not more so, than Zelensky, and feel they have been snubbed. Also the top political leaders of the EU countries - some more than others - who are irritated and feel slighted by the Yankee snub. They have been committed for three years to following the dictates of former President Joe Biden, they have applied heavy sanctions on Moscow, which have had serious repercussions for the European economy, and now they do not count on them.
Those most angered by the criteria imposed by Trump and emphasised by Vance and Secretary of Defence Hegseth are President Ursula von der Leyen, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz and French President Emmanuel Macron, who wish to have a say in a negotiated peace. In addition, the latter two aspired to the signing taking place in their respective capitals, Berlin or Paris, if Ukraine achieved a dignified peace. Not surprisingly, both governments have provided Zelenski with the largest quantities of weapons systems, missiles and large-calibre artillery shells, although less than London and Washington.
The nation in which Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have placed their trust to host the talks between the United States and Russia is Saudi Arabia. A great ally of Washington among the Arab nations and with excellent relations with Moscow. In its capital, Riyadh, the crown prince and prime minister, Mohamed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, will set the stage for the delegations from the White House and the Kremlin, with his mediation, to reach an agreement that, at least apparently, will bring peace back to Europe.
The Trump Administration is clear about this and so are its messengers. Vance has explained to his allies that his main priority is to achieve ‘a peaceful diplomatic end to the war, as quickly as possible and in a way that establishes a lasting peace’. And that is the path that is being followed, whatever the cost and whoever gets hurt. Von der Leyen and the leaders of European countries need time to rethink their positions and, step by step, they will do so. Trump is likely to offer Brussels the opportunity to defray significant costs of rebuilding Ukraine and to deploy observers in Kiev to verify the agreements reached.
What is the next surprise in store from the Trump Administration? We must remember the first broadsides across Denmark's waterline over Greenland; the initiative to raise tariffs on certain products from Canada, China, Mexico and the EU; pulling out of the hat a plan to turn the Gaza Strip into a tourist paradise; having its inhabitants taken in by Jordan and Egypt; and demanding that NATO countries increase their pledged defence spending from 2% to 5% of their respective GDP. Now it is Ukraine's turn. What will come next?