Xavier Bettel’s reaction to the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska

“Unfortunately, there can be no talk of major successes,” Foreign Minister Xavier Bettel (DP) said on Saturday morning, just a few hours after the press conference between US President Donald Trump and Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin.

So far, it is difficult to take stock of the meeting, the minister said. The important thing, Bettel stressed, is that no agreement has yet been reached without Ukraine. “It is crucial that the Ukrainians themselves are at the negotiating table, especially when it comes to their own territory,” he said.

For the minister, the first priority remains a ceasefire, which could pave the way for further peace talks. “Donald Trump cannot negotiate for the Ukrainians. The end of the war must be negotiated between the parties to the conflict themselves,” Bettel continued.

“If you look at the whole thing, it is a staging by Trump and shows how he does business. It is an attempt to show American strength and to suggest that he is almost the only one who can negotiate the end of the war,” Bettel said.

In this sense, Putin was “received like a head of state,” he noted. “If you look at the pictures, I can imagine that many Ukrainians had a stomach ache. Putin tried to drive a wedge between Europe and America. But he did not achieve that.”

Further attacks on Ukraine

An end of the war is not in sight after Russia’s latest drone attacks on Ukraine and the Ukrainian response. Bettel said he spoke to his Ukrainian counterpart on Friday evening but did not provide further details.

For the foreign minister, the conclusion is clear: pressure on Russia must remain high because “essentially nothing has changed. Russia is continuing to attack Ukraine and President Putin’s maximum position basically remains unchanged,” the Minister said.

Bettel added that during his talks with Trump, Putin once again claimed that Ukraine was made up only of Nazis and therefore posed a threat. “But we know exactly where the war started,” he emphasised.

(This article has been first published by the Luxemburger Wort. Machine translated, with editing and adaptation by Lucrezia Reale.)