Donald Trump has conceded that Europe has won a key role in any future talks on a peace settlement in Ukraine, acknowledging that Russia must be pressured to come to the negotiating table, according to senior diplomats.
Diplomats and European officials noted that the US president is now more engaged in the Ukraine issue and putting pressure on Russia, after agreeing at the G7 in France to increase sanctions against Putin, as well as military support for Kiev.
New momentum and a sense of unity at the summit means Europeans will take part in revived peace talks, possibly before Europe’s long summer break in August, a senior diplomatic source said.
Trump changed his mind about Europeans having a place in the the negotiating table because governments across Europe are the ones “footing the bill” for military support for Ukraine, specifically “referring,” according to one source, to the EU’s €90 billion loan package for Kiev.
What form European involvement will take in any future negotiations on Ukraine and wider security remains to be settled, but the feeling among European G7 leaders, according to a senior diplomat, was that Trump was now more determined to force Russia to the negotiating table.
Putin’s military campaign has been seen as bad, and a new American willingness to increase sanctions is seen as crucial in forcing Russia to negotiate.
A joint statement, signed by Trump, committed the G7 to “increase pressure on the Russian war economy” with measures to “strengthen our sanctions, including those in the oil and gas sectors”.
The change in his stance was described by Mark Carney, the Canadian prime minister, as a “potential game changer”. A senior EU diplomat said new energy sanctions from the US would be “very welcome”, especially if Washington threw its weight behind a lower Russian oil price cap.
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