EU’s top diplomat accuses Trump of ‘appeasement’ with Putin – POLITICO Europe
“Any deal behind our backs will not work,” writes Kaja Kallas as U.S. president imparts “lengthy and highly productive” call with Russian leader. Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, denounced U.S. President Donald Trump’s call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Thursday, saying any deal on Ukraine’s future that is arranged without European involvement will be a non-starter.“It is clear that any deal behind our backs will not work. You need the Europeans, you need the Ukrainians,” Kallas told journalists on the sidelines of the NATO defense ministers’ meeting on Thursday.“Why are we giving them [Russia] everything they want even before the negotiations have started? It’s appeasement. It has never worked,” she added.Trump said Wednesday he’d had a “lengthy and highly productive phone call” with Putin that morning, confirming the two leaders had agreed to work together on a diplomatic resolution to the war in Ukraine.Following Trump’s call with Putin, the so-called Weimar+ grouping — the EU, France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and the U.K. — published a joint statement in support of Ukraine’s independence and territorial integrity. “In any negotiation, Europe must have a central role,” Kallas wrote in a post regarding the statement.But Hungary’s illiberal Prime Minister Viktor Orbán mocked the statement on Thursday, describing it as “sad” and “worthless,” and arguing that seats at the negotiating table must be earned “through strength, good leadership and smart diplomacy.”“The position of Brussels — to support killing as long as it takes — is morally and politically unacceptable,” Hungary’s leader says.Kremlin forces also shelled residential buildings in Kherson.A truce on a 2018 trade dispute on steel and aluminum between Brussels and Washington is set to lapse at the end of March. The globalization of the illicit narcotics trade is hampering investigators — but Brussels needs to score some quick societal wins, says Belgium’s drug commissioner after wave of shootings.
