I refer to the CNA’s Commentaries, “Trump-Putin deal on Ukraine will be Europe’s moment of reckoning” (Feb 20) and “Ukraine can survive with the ‘least worst’ peace” (Feb 22).
Now, In the eyes of European Union, they have lost trust and confidence in the United States, it is solely due to the flip flop foreign policy whenever there is a replacement of political power, especially when Trump is in power.
For the sake of the United States’ own interests, Trump will use all means to escape from the EU. Trump believes that the United States should not and is not worthy of spending large amounts of military expenditures to defend the EU. He is also determined to force Ukraine to cease war with Russia. At the same time, Trump also insisted that EU member states must step up and insisting that the EU to increase its defense spending.
Relations between the United States, Ukraine and the European Union took a sharp turn for the worse when it began with the Putin-Trump telephone conversation on 12 February and their presidential pledges to kickstart relations.
It continued with the Munich Security Conference that took place from 14 February to 16 February 2025 in Munich, Germany. In this conference, there were obvious signs of schism between Europe and America.
Next stop Saudi Arabia for the Russia-US talks: the first high-level in-person contacts between the two countries since the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
This has shown Trump deliberately skipped the EU and deliberately did not want the EU to participate in the Russia-Ukraine peace negotiations. This move undoubtedly angered the EU.
That was why Zelensky, who reacted to US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia from which Kyiv was excluded, said the US president was “living in a disinformation space” governed by Moscow.
And, President Trump has called Zelenskyy a “dictator” and deepening the rift between the two leaders.
In fact, Trump has kept two hidden agendas in his sleeves for ending this three-year long Russia-Ukraine war:
One is to repair the damaged relations between the US and Russia. Trump doesn’t want to see Russia leans too close to China, as US treats China as its present and future robust competition rival.
Undeniably, these competitions are in terms of military strength, technology, AI and science, space race and cultural influence.
This is a key point that the United States will never ignore.
Next, once achieving the closure of Russia-Ukraine war, Trump expects the global supply of crude oils will be persistently smooth and oil prices will drop. This will greatly relieve the pressure of domestic inflation in the United States, and it will fulfil his earlier presidential promise of bringing the country’s economy upward.
Secondly, Trump will effortlessly obtain the rights to develop and operate Ukrainian mines after the Russia-Ukraine war ends.
As Trump predicted a minerals agreement with Ukraine would be “signed hopefully in the next fairly short period of time”. The White House national security adviser, Mike Waltz, said on 21 February that Zelenskyy was expected to sign a deal imminently.
Anyway, Ukraine suffered a major defeat in the Russia-Ukraine War. On February 15, 2025, President of the Republic of Ukraine Vladimir Zelensky announced that Ukraine would lose 4,000 square kilometers of territory in 2024 (including Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, followed by Ukraine’s loss of Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, and Zaporozhye). At the same time, 65 square kilometers of industrial town – Toretsk is also in danger under the onslaught of the Russian army. As a result, the morale of the Ukrainian army was depleted. In short, Zelensky has lost his bargaining chip for Russia-Ukraine peace.
Even although Zelensky on Wednesday rejected US demands for $500bn in mineral wealth from Ukraine to repay Washington for wartime aid, saying the US had supplied nowhere near that sum so far and had offered no specific security guarantees.
Ukraine has never been able to escape the tragic fate of failure. In the end, Ukraine was still unable to join the NATO camp, and at the same time it paid a heavy price in the lives of hundred thousand of soldiers and civilians.
Despite this, many ordinary people may ask, is the world dominated/dictated by hegemonic powers like the United States and Russia? Then, what is the ultimate goal or functions of the United Nations?
The way Trump administration bypasses or excludes the European Union, Ukraine or China at the planned schedule of Russia-Ukraine peace talks is really incomprehensible, ridiculous and unacceptable as well as making the whole world “blood boil”.
Teo Kueh Liang (Mr)
