Luc Frieden on White House summit: ‘Team Europe worked’

One day after a pivotal meeting at the White House between US President Donald Trump, Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskiy and the heads of state and government of several European countries, Luxembourg Prime Minister Luc Frieden (CSV) is positive about the progress and outcome of the talks.

Frieden said the success of Monday’s talks was based on three points. “Firstly, that we talked about security guarantees for Ukraine and are shaping these together with the Americans. Secondly, that there was no discussion in Washington about the territory of Ukraine, because that is exclusively in the hands of the Ukrainians. And thirdly, we said that it would be important for a meeting to take place between President Zelenskiy and President Putin – if possible in the presence of Europeans and Americans – in order to negotiate a lasting peace.”

Both sides in the Western hemisphere had agreed on all of these points, Frieden emphasised following a joint video conference between the European countries on Tuesday afternoon.

“For me, the positive thing is that Team Europe worked and we spoke constructively with the Americans. That wasn’t so clear a few weeks ago. There was a big difference between the first meeting with President Trump and yesterday,” the PM said.

Uncertainties regarding security guarantees

Russia remains an unknown variable, making it difficult to assess how Moscow will react to the latest diplomatic efforts, Frieden explained. “I am relatively sceptical about Russia’s will to create a lasting and acceptable peace. But we must do everything we can to achieve this,” he said.

In particular, the question of security guarantees for Ukraine and how they should be organised is still the subject of much speculation. Possible options include guarantees similar to those provided by Article 5 of the Nato treaty – albeit without formally admitting Ukraine to the military alliance. The deployment of peacekeeping troops has also been mooted, though President Trump has ruled out US soldiers being stationed in Ukraine.

“The details of these security guarantees are only now being discussed, especially between the Americans and the countries that were in Washington on Monday,” Frieden said. “I can’t talk about the details for security reasons. And it is not yet possible to say exactly which countries are involved.”

(This article was first published by Luxemburger Wort. Translated using AI, edited by Duncan Roberts)