NATO provides the best security guarantee for Ukraine, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told AFP on 27 February in Washington, directly contradicting US President Donald Trump’s position.
In a Washington interview, Kaja Kallas, former Estonian Prime Minister and current EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs, warned that Europe will be unable to contribute to any Ukraine agreement unless included in negotiations, while US President Donald Trump negotiates directly with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The US has already held two rounds of talks with Russia, in Riyadh and Istanbul, without any involvement from Ukraine or the EU.
Regarding Trump’s NATO speculations, Kallas noted:
“Why are we in NATO? Because we are afraid of Russia. And the only thing that really works, the only security guarantee that works, is the NATO umbrella,” she stated, adding that Trump’s “accusations are totally false. It’s the Russian discourse that we shouldn’t believe.”
Kallas wondered,
“Why should we give Russia what it wants in addition to what it has already done, by attacking Ukraine, annexing territories and occupying territories and, now, offering it even more,” the EU’s top diplomat said, adding: “Imagine the United States after September 11 sitting at the table with Osama bin Laden to say: ‘OK, what else do you want?’ It’s unthinkable.”
Related:
- US officials warn Trump-Putin talks could return Russian spies to American soil
- ISW: Kremlin dismisses US terms, demands Ukraine cede non-occupied territories
- Trump rules out Ukraine’s NATO membership, pledges to get “some land” back
- I can’t believe I said that: Trump doesn’t remember calling Zelenskyy “dictator”
- Biden, Obama, Trump: Different presidents, same Russian reset trap
- Rubio sets goal for “next” talks: defining war exit conditions for Russia, Ukraine
- Trump says he may visit Moscow, not on 9 May but “within weeks”
- Trump views Ukraine as a pawn in US-Russia reset that he is actually negotiating, columnist says