President Emmanuel Macron of France called on a second emergency meeting of European allies on Wednesday by seeking to re -establish relations with the United States, as President Trump invests international politics with rapidly changing US alliances.
Mr Macron had already gathered twelve European leaders in Paris on Monday, after Mr Trump and his new team enraged and confused the traditional America allies indicating that the United States would quickly retreat from security in Europe and planning proceed with peace talks with Russia – without Europe or Ukraine in table.
Mr Trump’s observations late on Tuesday, when they rushed fully with Russia’s narrative accusing Ukraine of war, now reinforced the impression that the United States are willing to abandon its role as a European ally and change the sides to embrace President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia.
It was a complete reversal of the historical alliances that left many in Europe anesthetized and scared.
“What happens is very bad. It is a reversal of the world’s situation since 1945, “said Jeanyves Le Drian, a former French foreign minister, on French radio on Wednesday morning.
“It is our safety that is at risk,” he said, referring to Mr Trump. “We need to wake up.”
The fear that Mr Trump is ready to leave Ukraine and has accepted Russian speech points was particularly acute in Eastern and Central Europe, where the memories are long and bitter by the West’s efforts to calm Hitler in Munich in 1938 and His assent to Stalin’s demands of the Yalta Congress in 1945 on a Europe was split into two.
“Even Poland’s betrayal in Yalta lasted more than Ukraine’s betrayal in Riyadh,” said Wednesday, Wednesday, Jaroslaw Walesa, a Polish legislator and son of the anti-communist solidarity of Poland. in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.
Rasa Jukneviciene, a former Lithuanian defense minister, who is now a member of the European Parliament, said it was “difficult to understand” the sudden shifts of policy from the United States, the once reliable pillar of Europe’s security for decades. He said that “he was wondering what historians would write about the events of this time, let’s say, in five decades.”
“It is already clear that the Euro-Atlantic connection will not be the same as it was,” he said. “The stage that European security after World War II was basically guaranteed by the US only ended.”
Europe, he added, “once again faces existential challenges” – similar to those in 1938, after Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain met with Hitler in Munich and agreed with the attachment of Czechoslovakia with a large German population.
In the empty power, Mr Macron tried to show the leadership, with allied leaders planning a united answer.
The élysée palace has announced that it will host a second emergency meeting on Wednesday of many European leaders who had not been included at the meeting on Monday. Among them were the temporary president of Romania, Ilie Bolojan and Prime Minister Luc Frieden of Luxembourg, who will be present in person, while leaders from 18 other countries were scheduled to watch videos. They included Ireland, Iceland, Portugal, Sweden, Finland, Norway, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia, Greece, Sweden and Belgium.
The meeting comes on the day Foreign Minister Marco Rubio met with Russian representatives, including Foreign Minister Sergei V. Lavrov, in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, to discuss a peace deal on the war in Ukraine, his mania , Volodymyr Zelensky, who had not been invited.
Mr Rubio said he was forging a three-party plan, which would begin with the restoration of bilateral relations between Washington and Moscow and finally, exploring new collaborations-geopolics and businesses-between Russia and the United States, while addressing one. End of war with Ukraine in the meantime.
Mr Rubio said he would consult Ukraine, the American “partners in Europe and others”, but in the end, “in the end, the Russian side will be essential in this effort”.
Then, speaking to reporters at the Mar-A-Lago estate in Florida, Mr Trump accused Ukraine of starting the war, despite the fact that Russia had invaded.
“You could have made a deal,” he said, frustrating Mr Zelensky’s popularity and indicating that it was not worth a place on the negotiating table.
“Well, they had a place for three years. And a long time ago,” said Trump. “This could have been very easily settled. Once a half negotiator could have been installed years ago without, I think, without the loss of many land, very little land. Without the loss of any life. And without the loss of cities that simply they put on their sides. “
Mr Trump’s comments that accuse Ukraine on the war caused the rage in the Czech Republic, whose central government was a supporter of Ukraine. “I am afraid that it was never so close to” Orwell war, it is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is power “before,” Interior Minister Vit Rakusan said in social media.
Mr Le Drian called it a monstrous reversal of world alliances, as well as a “reversal of truth”.
“The victim becomes the attacker,” he said, adding that the United States appeared to be back in a 19th -century view of himself and to say an aggressive, expansive Russia to do whatever he wants in Europe. “It’s the law of the strongest,” he said, adding, “tomorrow, it could be Moldova and after tomorrow, it could be Estonia because Putin won’t stop.”
Marko Mihkelson, chairman of the Estonian Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee, also compared Riyadh’s meeting with 1938 talks in Munich. “All this is paving the way for the attacker to achieve his new conquest plans,” he said.
Prior to Mr Rubio and Mr Trump’s statements on Tuesday, Mr Macron said he considered the Russian threat to Europe not only by military, but through Slyer, including cyberattacks and handling of electoral processes such as Romania.
“Russia is an existential threat to Europeans,” Mr Macron said on Tuesday in an interview with French regional newspapers, such as Le Parisien and OUest France.
“Don’t think that the unthinkable cannot happen, including the worst,” he added.
On Monday, twelve European leaders left a rapidly organized meeting in Paris with a loud message that Europeans and Ukrainians had to be included in any peace talks with Russia and the commitment to increase military funding.
Many made it clear that they wanted an ongoing alliance with the United States, which they considered necessary for European security.
“The positive message was that we all had the same feeling that this is not about the US or Europe, but it is the US and Europe together and that Europe understands very well that we have to speed up, but that we still want to do with them with them Americans, “said Prime Minister Dick Schoof of the Netherlands.
Mr Trump’s latest statement threw water into many of these emotions and can now force a deeper review of the transatlantic alliance by European leaders.
Mr Macron has been talking to European leaders for months about creating a ceasefire firing in Ukraine and has long called for European strategic autonomy. Still, he told the French regional media that he did not believe that European countries could defend themselves without US support.
He said he expects European countries to increase their military budgets and announce new programs to allow them to do so “already in March”. Denmark said on Wednesday that it would increase the $ 5 billion military budget by an additional $ 7 billion for two years to reach 3 % of gross domestic product.
Already, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen announced in a speech that he would propose a “escape clause for defense investment”, allowing countries to fund defense without violating the strict fiscal rules of the European Union, aiming to maintain the deficits of the budget deficit under 3 years of size Economy of each country.
“This will allow Member States to substantially increase their defense spending,” he said.
Europeans are also discussing joint defense spending – including how to finance them, which could include the issuance of a common debt, although this is still for discussion. They also talk about how to increase the growth of European defense industries.
Last week, Europe’s steady position that held the United States as a central pole of its defense warranty seems to change, said Martin Quencez, director of the Paris office of the German Marshall Fund.
The big question will be whether European nations will follow at increased military spending and maintain a united front, without leaking to negotiate individually with Mr Trump, he said.
“I have heard Europe talking about awakening calls so many times in the last 10 years, I remain careful,” he said, noting that many European leaders, including Mr Macron, are in fragile political and economic positions in their own countries.
“I am sure we will hear from every European leader, but let’s see what real decisions are being made,” he said, adding: “It is very, very difficult to say to your population, we should make the hard choice to prioritize European security in Social issues or environmental issues.
Poland, the largest and most military country in the former Communist East of the European Union, asked on Tuesday night after talking to Saudi Arabia, ended to calm the panic.
On that day, President Andrzej Duda visited Warsaw by his special envoy Trump about Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, retired general lieutenant. The Polish leader said Mr Kellogg assured him that “there are absolutely no US intentions to reduce activity here in our section of Europe, especially in the field of security, to reduce the number of US troops”.
The United States has thousands of soldiers in Poland and in November opened a new missile defense unit near the Baltic Sea that Russia considers as a threat to its own safety. Downloading Washington to close the Polish space and similar in Romania was a long -term demand by Mr Putin.
Jeanna smialek They contributed reports from Brussels.
