Chancellor Merz sees progress after the meeting between US President Trump and Kremlin chief Putin – especially with regard to security guarantees for Ukraine. However, he also spoke on ARD's Brennpunkt program about"disturbing images" from Alaska.
It was a meeting with"light and shade" – that's how Chancellor Friedrich Merz summarized the Ukraine summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on ARD's Brennpunkt. There were"one or two disturbing images," said the CDU politician, in light of the"high protocol" with which the two most powerful men in the world met in Anchorage."The press in Russia is jubilant. A little less would have been good."
But the Chancellor also saw positive aspects – for example, that Trump had not made any concessions to Putin regarding Ukrainian territory. This had also been a"very critical point" in the preliminary talks between the Europeans and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy with Trump.
"Trump didn't win any of our points"
In fact, the US president hasn't addressed any of the points made beforehand."Trump is moving within the line we discussed," Merz said. This is"good progress."
On the way to Alaska, the US president said that a ceasefire was"the most important thing," Merz said. Now it should be"something even bigger, namely a complete peace agreement" – and within a very short time."We have to look very closely at how that works," Merz admitted. Trump was"very pleased with himself" after the meeting with Putin, in the call with Zelensky and the Europeans.
"America stays on board"
For Merz, the"positive surprise" of the summit was that there was an American willingness to provide security guarantees for the attacked Ukraine – together with the Europeans, even after the war ends."America will stay on board, even for the time after," Merz said.
The next step, however, is the meeting between Trump and Zelensky on Monday in Washington. Merz said he hoped the conversation would be"hopefully of very high quality" for Zelensky in terms of protocol. The chancellor was referring to Zelensky's last visit to the White House, when he was temporarily paraded by Trump and US Vice President J.D. Vance. Merz, who also visited Washington afterward, said he gave Zelensky"some advice on how he should conduct himself at his next appearance at the White House."
"At least - the talks have begun"
According to Merz, a three-way meeting between Trump, Zelensky, and Putin is also expected to take place soon, as they heard from Trump after the summit. However, there have been no signals from Moscow so far."A lot is still open," said the Chancellor."But at least the talks have begun. And that is definitely the good news."
Regarding Europe's role, Merz said they must continue to speak with one voice. There should be no territorial concessions from Ukraine before a peace agreement is signed. This must also be"the point in time when the security guarantees come into force." Merz emphasized that he remains confident that this can be achieved with combined forces."More diplomacy than in the last few days is really not possible."
"The EU must finally grow up"
With regard to the EU's defense capability, the Chancellor said that even after a possible peace agreement for Ukraine, it is"necessary that we in the EU finally grow up, become capable of defense," so that peace and freedom can be secured on our own continent in the long term "without us having to rely on American help again and again."
But Merz also seems to realize that a peace agreement is still a long way off. The fact that Putin allowed the attack on Ukraine to continue during the talks in Alaska was"a great lack of respect" and showed "how secure he feels at the moment."
