Two days before the planned meeting between US President Trump and Russian President Putin in Alaska, Europe and the US are trying to smooth out their differences.
After a video conference attended by Trump, Vice President Vance, several European heads of government, and the leaders of the EU and NATO, German Chancellor Merz spoke of a “constructive and good conversation.” Ukrainian President Zelensky, who traveled specially to Berlin to participate, said Trump had assured him that he would inform him immediately after his meeting with Putin about its outcome.
When US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff visited Moscow a week ago and President Trump subsequently announced a face-to-face meeting with Putin and proposed a “territorial exchange” between Russia and Ukraine, alarm bells rang in European capitals.
Media commentators accused Trump of “betraying” Ukraine and drew parallels with the 1938 Munich Conference, at which Britain and France ceded part of Czechoslovakia to Hitler without inviting the Czech government to the meeting.
An editorial in Der Spiegel stated that Europeans had so far “mainly flattered” Trump. This embarrassing approach must now be supplemented “by steadfastness, and if necessary, confrontation.” In order to enable Zelensky to reject a bad deal, the editorial said, “weapons and ammunition in even greater quantities, better drone technology, and replacements for American targeting systems” are needed.
European governments pulled out all the stops to prevent a meeting between Trump and Putin without European and Ukrainian participation.
On August 9, the heads of government of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Britain and Finland, as well as European Union (EU) Commission President von der Leyen, issued a joint statement. They insisted “that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine’s and Europe’s vital security interests” and that “the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine.”
The Europeans began by welcoming “President Trump’s work to stop the killing in Ukraine, end the Russian Federation’s war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace and security for Ukraine.” But this is flattery to appease Trump. The statement then sets out a series of conditions that are unacceptable to Russia and amount to a continuation of the war.
On August 12, the European Council also endorsed this statement. Of the 27 EU heads of state and government, only one, Hungary’s Viktor Orbán, did not vote in favor.
After yesterday’s video conference with Trump, Chancellor Merz repeated and clarified the European conditions and claimed, without being specific, that Trump “largely” shared them.
“We Europeans are doing everything in our power to set the course for this meeting in the right direction,” Merz said. “We want President Donald Trump to be successful in Anchorage on Friday.” He then outlined the European conditions.
First and foremost is the preservation of “fundamental European and Ukrainian security interests.” Germany alone has mobilized around €40 billion in military aid since 2022, and the EU has adopted 18 EU sanctions packages, according to Merz. Germany now wants to benefit from this. If Trump works toward a peace that “preserves European and Ukrainian interests,” “he can count on our full support,” Merz assured.
Ukraine is ready to negotiate on territorial issues, Merz continued, deviating from the EU’s previous line. But only after a ceasefire, for which the current front line must be the starting point. He ruled out legal recognition of territorial concessions, however. Furthermore, there must be robust security guarantees for Ukraine and pressure on Russia must be increased.
The events of the past week have shown how conflict-ridden the relationship between the US and the European powers is. Although NATO is still the most powerful military alliance in the world, accounting for 55 percent of global military spending, the cracks that are tearing it apart are growing deeper by the month.
This will remain the case even if tensions cool down somewhat for the moment and Trump does not strike a deal with Putin on Friday at the expense of the Europeans. The growing tensions stem from the nature of the war in Ukraine itself.
NATO is not defending “freedom” and ‘democracy’ in Ukraine against a “Russian war of aggression.” It is waging a war for the material resources of Ukraine and Russia as part of an imperialist struggle to redivide the world. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union three decades ago removed its last inhibitions, the US has waged one brutal imperialist war after another to defend its world domination—against Iraq, against Serbia, against Afghanistan, against Iraq for a second time, against Libya and Syria, to name only the most important ones. The European NATO partners have supported these wars in order to share in the spoils.
The Russian invasion of Ukraine was a reactionary response to NATO’s relentless expansion, which culminated in the Western-backed coup in Kiev in 2014. The Russian government did not accept NATO advancing to the 2,300-kilometer-long common border with Ukraine within firing range of Moscow.
Nevertheless, the invasion was reactionary, and the WSWS has sharply condemned it because it divides the working class and thereby strengthens imperialism. “Putin, a bitter enemy of socialism and the heritage of the October Revolution, is incapable of making any genuinely democratic and progressive appeal to the Ukrainian working class. Instead, he invokes the reactionary legacy of Tsarist and Stalinist Great Russian chauvinism,” said WSWS International Editorial Board chairman David North in a speech on May 1, 2022.
Germany is the largest supporter of the war in Ukraine after the US. German imperialism has never come to terms with the fact that it had to take a back seat after losing two world wars. Now it is once again advancing militarily into regions—the Baltic states, Ukraine, Russia—that it tried in vain to conquer in two world wars, and is using the war in Ukraine as a pretext to rearm on a scale not seen since Hitler.
When Trump negotiates with Putin over the heads of Europeans and imposes punitive tariffs on friends and foes alike—including European “partners”—this is not the personal whim of a real estate dealer, but the result of the imperialist struggle to redivide the world, in which yesterday’s “partners” become today’s rivals and adversaries. Capitalism is heading toward the abyss of a third world war unless the working class puts a stop to it in time.