Europeans’ main concern has not been left out of peace negotiations that can reconfigure the continent map
Ricardo della Coletta
After decades when the American alliance with Europe was something guaranteed, the statements of the Vice President of the United States, JD Vance, at the Munich Security Conference on Friday (14) left the continent’s leaders in shock .
Not only is the military umbrella in doubt-see conversations between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin that point to an agreement about the Ukraine war that would not even include Europe-as Vance showed that the US can be a destabilization force internal in the block.
In the two days of the conference, which brings together a hotel in Munich some of the main political and military leaders on both sides of the Atlantic, the main concern of Europeans has not been left out of peace negotiations that can reconfigure the continent map.
The election was in the speech of virtually every European Union (EU) leaders – who also showed a clear discomfort with Trump’s deputy speech.
The president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, argued that any understanding for peace needs to respect the sacrifice of the Ukrainians.
The president of the European Council, António Costa, said that the bloc will not give up Ukraine and, in reference to the information that came up after Trump’s conversation with Putin, said that making concessions in the early stage of conversations is a big mistake.
“Only Ukraine can define when there is conditions to negotiate,” he said. “There will be no negotiation with credibility or successful without Ukraine and EU.”
The Ukrainian President Volodimir Zelenski himself, exhorted on Saturday (15) Europeans to prepare for a scenario to reduce Washington military aid.
“I do not believe in security guarantees without the US, but they will only give these guarantees if Europe also gives them,” he said.
Republican Senator Lindsey Graham added the transactional component that permeates all aspects of Donald Trump’s foreign policy: he said Zelenski should sign an agreement on the exploitation of US minerals because, in case of aggression, the US president would have material interests to defend there.
The deep impact of Vance’s speech still reverberated in virtually all the debate sessions that occurred.
Conversations at sessions and corridors of the Munich conference have ceased to undergo a military solution or the expectation of Ukrainian advances on the battlefield.
Instead, influenced by the weakening of the transatlantic alliance, several leaders have advocated a significant increase in their spending on defense of Europe – if necessary, with the flexibilization of tax rules.
According to Polish prime minister Donald Tusk, France invited European leaders to a meeting on the Ukrainian issue next Monday (17).
Vance’s speech scared the Europeans not only because Ukraine was ignored.
The accusation that the biggest threat today in Europe is the policies of regulating social networks – the threat that comes from within, in Vance’s words – was interpreted as direct interference with European politics.
European criticism only increased after Vance met with Alice Weidel of the far-right alternative party to Germany (AFD), a few days from the country’s elections.
