European leaders are scrambling to reply to what appears like the top of dependable US safety of the continent. It’s unclear what the “main European countries” (which incorporates the UK) may have the ability to agree at a swiftly convened assembly in Paris on Monday February 17. However particular person international locations, together with the UK and Germany, have come ahead to place concrete gives on the desk for Ukraine’s safety, which might embody placing their troops on the bottom.
This uncommon circling of the wagons was triggered by the 2025 Munich Safety Convention, which ended yesterday. It delivered to a detailed per week of outstanding upheaval for Europe, leaving little doubt that two already apparent tendencies within the deteriorating transatlantic relationship accelerated additional.
What the world noticed was unabashed US unilateralism in terms of the battle in Ukraine. Ominously, there was additionally a transparent indication of the extent of American intentions to intrude within the home political processes of European international locations – most notably the upcoming German parliamentary elections on February 23.
None of this could have come as a shock. However the full-force assault by Donald Trump’s envoys to Europe was nonetheless sobering – particularly as soon as all its implications are thought of. What was, maybe, extra stunning was that European leaders pushed again and did so in an unusually public and unequivocal manner.
Over the course of just some days, two of the worst European fears have been confirmed. First, the Trump administration is pushing forward with its concept of a US-Russia deal to finish the battle in Ukraine. And all of the indicators are that Washington plans to depart Ukraine and the EU out of any negotiations and to their very own gadgets in terms of post-ceasefire safety preparations.
On February 12, the US president introduced he had spoken at size with Russian president Vladimir Putin, and subsequently knowledgeable Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky of the dialog. The identical day, US defence secretary Pete Hegseth, confirmed at a press convention after a gathering of Nato defence ministers in Brussels that direct negotiations between Russia and the US would start instantly. They won’t embody any European or Ukrainian officers, he mentioned.
Hegseth additionally poured chilly water on any hopes that there could be strong US safety ensures for Ukraine. He explicitly dominated out US troops for any peacekeeping forces deployed by different Nato members, or that any assault on these forces could be thought of an assault on the entire alliance underneath article 5 of the Nato treaty.
The European response was swift and, not less than on paper, decisive. Proper after Hegseth’s feedback in Brussels, the Weimar+ group (Germany, France, Poland + Italy, Spain, the UK, the EU’s diplomatic service and the European Fee) issued a joint assertion reiterating their dedication to enhanced assist in defence of Ukraine’s independence, sovereignty and territorial integrity.
On February 14, the EU’s high officers – European council president António Costa and European Fee president Ursula von der Leyen – met with Zelensky on the margins of the convention. They assured him of the EU’s “continued and stable support to Ukraine until a just, comprehensive and lasting peace is reached”.
The next day, Costa’s speech in Munich reiterated this dedication. Much like earlier feedback by Nato’s secretary common, Mark Rutte, Costa underlined Europe’s willpower to “to act better, stronger and faster in building the Europe of defence”.
However these declarations of the EU’s willpower to proceed supporting Ukraine don’t mirror consensus contained in the Union on such a place. Weimar+ solely features a choose variety of EU member states, establishments and the UK, underlining the persevering with difficulties in reaching unanimity on important safety and defence points. Unsurprisingly, Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, issued a scathing condemnation of the Weimar+ assertion as a “sad testament of bad Brusselian leadership”.
Orbán’s feedback play proper into many Europeans’ fears about one other darkish aspect of Trump’s agenda in terms of transatlantic relations. As foreshadowed within the influential Undertaking 2025 report by a coalition of conservative US thinktanks, the Trump administration is intent on weakening European unity. This can embody stopping the UK from slipping “back into the orbit of the EU” and “developing new allies inside the EU – especially the Central European countries”.
Opening up divides
The US vice-president, J.D. Vance, used his speech in Munich to assert that the true menace to European safety was not coming from Russia or China, however relatively “from within”. He went on to chide “EU commissars” and insinuated that Europe’s present leaders had extra in widespread with the “tyrannical forces on this continent” who misplaced the chilly battle.
Disaster talks: Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky meets with US vice-president J.D. Vance on the sidelines of the Munich Safety Convention.
EPA-EFE/Ukrainian presidential press service
In Romania, the place presidential elections have been cancelled after proof of huge Russian election interference emerged, opposition events revelled in Vance’s feedback that the transfer had been based mostly on the “flimsy suspicions of an intelligence agency and enormous pressure from its continental neighbours”. The vice-president has additional exacerbated political divisions in a key European and Nato ally proper on the border with Ukraine.
Vance subsequently sought out Alice Weidel, the co-leader of the right-wing Different for Germany (AfD). The pair reportedly mentioned the battle in Ukraine, German home politics and the so-called brandmauer. That is the settlement between centre-right and left-wing events in Germany to type a “firewall” to forestall excessive right-wing events from becoming a member of coalitions, which has not too long ago been weakened.
Their assembly was extensively criticised as one more American try for the get together to spice up its probabilities at Germany’s upcoming parliamentary elections on February 23. Referring to Germany’s historic expertise with Nazism, the German chancellor, Olaf Scholz defended the necessity to maintain the road towards far-right political events just like the AfD.
Polar shift
There have been many watershed moments and wake-up requires Europe previously. What’s completely different now’s {that a} new multipolar order is rising – and Europe will not be certainly one of its poles. Equally importantly, given the willpower of this US administration to upend the present worldwide order, Europe will not be part of any pole anymore both.
Concurrently at stake are European unity and the transatlantic relationship. These are the 2 key pillars which have ensured European safety, democracy and prosperity for the reason that finish of the second world battle. Out of necessity, Europe will almost definitely have to regulate to a much-weakened transatlantic relationship. However the European undertaking won’t survive with out unity.
It is a important juncture for Europe. The continent must outline its future place and position within the dysfunctional love triangle of Trump, Putin and Xi, a triumvirate that may form and dominate the brand new international order.
