European leaders stayed at the “children’s table” to see Russia and the US to decide their future. “We ended up as a European Union caricature”

Zelensky says he was caught “surprise” for the “Russian American meeting in Saudi Arabia” about the future of his own country. European leaders were also relegated to “the table of children” and, between summons and “macronices”, there is no consensus on how to wage the threat of this rapprochement of Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump

The European Union (EU) was relegated to “the children’s table” in the negotiations between Russia and the US about the future of the Rheinmetall CEO, Germany’s largest arms manufacturer, cited by, in a criticism of the stance of the stance European leaders regarding defense policy. Manuel Serrano, an international policy expert, goes further: “We are not even in the same building, the more in the same room.”

Without Ukraine or the EU at the negotiation table in Riade, Saudi Arabia, US and Russian delegations decided, in a meeting that lasted for more than four hours, designating “high-level” teams to end conflict. as soon as possible. ”

“We are completely out of the way and this is proposed,” said CNN Portugal Manuel Serrano, stressing that this may be the strategy of the new US administration, coined by Steve Bannon, former Trump counselor at the White House, such as “Muzzle Velocity” . “It is to announce everything at the same time, in a super fast, one thing happens after another,” leaving European leaders totally overwhelmed, explains the expert. And we in Europe says, “We have no ability to react to anything.”

“Europe feels that it has been set aside,” says Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa, pointing his finger at the “United States of Donald Trump”, who, he says, “consider the owners of the ball,” which child in a playground that He throws his own rules, and which have “a particular lack of consideration for Europe as a world power.” In Manuel Serrano’s understanding, however, “we cannot blame Trump for everything and anything”, also blaming the EU itself “for our lack of an effective structure”.

Later, the US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, who is part of the US delegation he traveled to Riade, called French Foreign Ministers, United Kingdom, Italy and Germany to assure them that the EU is not being Out of negotiations. “Rubio’s words were very clear. Europe will participate in the negotiations for an obvious reason: we have imposed sanctions on Russia, sanctions that are still in force and there can be no negotiations if this matter is not on the table or if those That they apply them at the negotiation table, “said Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani, in a statement quoted by Reuters.

But it is not only European leaders who feel relegated to the background in this theme. The Ukrainian President himself said he was caught “surprise” with Tuesday’s meeting between Russia and the US about the future of his own country. “We were not invited to this Russian American meeting in Saudi Arabia. It was a surprise to us. I think it was a surprise to many people, ”he said at a press conference in Ankara, Turkey, where he met his homologist Recep Tayiip Erdogan, while negotiations in Saudi Arabia.

For this very reason, Zelensky decided to postpone the visit he had scheduled for a Saudi Arabia: “We are absolutely honest and open. I don’t want any coincidence. That’s why I don’t go to Saudi Arabia, ”he said, adding that although he wants the war to end, he doesn’t want it at any cost. “We want it to be fair and that no one decides on our backs,” he said.

After the “blunt failure” of the meeting of European leaders in Paris, as Manuel Serrano describes, in a widely criticized format, since only the heads of government of seven EU Member States, besides the United Kingdom, and the President were summoned. From the European Council, António Costa, the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen and Nato Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Emmanuel Macron returned a new meeting at the Elisha Palace. This time, he summoned some allies of Nato not invited to the meeting on Monday, namely Norway, Canada, Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia, Chéquia, Greece, Finland, Romania, Sweden and Belgium.

Today in Paris we reaffirmed that Ukraine deserves peace through strength.

Peace respectful of its independence, territorial integrity, with strong security guarantees.

Europe carries its full share of the military assistance to Ukraine.

At the same time, we need a surge in…

– António Costa (@eucopresident)

At so many, with so many “unsuccessful” conferences and meetings, the European Union eventually became a “caricature” of itself, criticizes Manuel Serrano. According to the Russian state media are being instructed to portray Kiev and Europeans as weak and with less and less influence on the international scene. The Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper wrote that Europe is in a state of “shock and horror.”

Emmanuel Macron’s attitude is also being criticized. Some understand that these successive meetings are another “” to “occupy a space that is empty” – the need for a strong EU leader. In the view of Ambassador Francisco Seixas da Costa, the French president “is taking advantage of the circumstance that Germany is in a phase of political transition”, with the federal elections scheduled for the 23rd. Even Macron “is in a very fragile position, either Regarding the government that has decided to maintain, either in relation to its own future, “adds the ambassador. Now, he says, “is making its internal weakness an external force.” Only, “by not summoning others [Estados-membros da UE]makes a minority certificate to the EU itself “, criticizes Francisco Seixas da Costa.

More than Cimeiras – that Manuel Serrano admits that sometimes they are necessary – the EU needs to give a “stronger” answer, argues the expert. At Monday’s meeting in Paris, leaders again discussed the possibility of sending European troops to the border between Russia and Ukraine. Emmanuel Macron was the first to suggest this idea last year, which was immediately excluded by other European leaders.

The insistence on this idea created discomfort at Monday’s meeting, to the point that the German chancellor was the first to leave Elisha’s palace, confessing to journalists that he was “angry” with a discussion that he considers “absolutely inappropriate” before he had even a peace plan in Ukraine. British Prime Minister Keir Strmer offered to send soldiers to Ukraine, but only with US support, considering that this would be “the only way to effectively dissuade Russia to attack Ukraine again.”

For Manuel Serrano, “there are concrete things that can be done” at the European level as a response to the Russian threat. “For example, joint debt issuance for defense financing, which was something we, European Union, did during the pandemic. If it is easy to do? No, ”admits the expert, adding, however, that there are states that seem increasingly favorable to this idea. “Denmark for several months said it would never accept him and now apparently has changed his mind,” he says, adding also the example of Germany, where he says, “surely there will be a new chancellor” to succeed Olaf Scholz. “Friedrich Merz [candidato da CDU nas eleições federais] It has not opposed, ”he says, adding that this candidate is“ much more pro-Uct ”than Scholz.

The international policy expert fears that the EU will not be able to respond to the Trump 2.0 challenge and fears the consequences of this to the European bloc, from the outset the increase in populism and Eurocesticism. “Trump has a visceral hatred to the European Union, by it the European Union did not exist,” he says. Influenced by this narrative, “extreme radical agendas,” he says, “they have given up destroying the European Union from outside. Therefore, parties such as arrival, AFD (Germany) and National Union (France) are trying to destroy the Union. European from inside. “