There can be no negotiation \u201cabout Ukraine without Ukraine\u201d, the UK\u2019s defence secretary has warned.<\/p>\n
John Healey was speaking ahead of a Nato meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday after US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to begin negotiations to end the war.<\/p>\n
Healey told reporters: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the calls from President Trump overnight and we all want to see a durable peace and no return to conflict and aggression.\u201d<\/p>\n
But he added that Russia \u201cremains a threat well beyond Ukraine\u201d.<\/p>\n
He told reporters that \u201cmy message\u2026 Will be that there can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine and Ukraine\u2019s voice must be at the heart of any talks\u201d.<\/p>\n
It is becoming harder for Nato to keep a united front on Ukraine, with Trump\u2019s unilateral efforts to bring an end to the war.<\/p>\n
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump said he and the Russian president had \u201cagreed to have our respective teams start negotiations immediately\u201d.<\/p>\n
He did not set a date for a face-to-face meeting with Putin, but later told reporters at the White House: \u201cWe\u2019ll meet in Saudi Arabia.\u201d He wrote on social media the pair had also invited each other to their respective capitals.<\/p>\n
The head of the Alliance, Mark Rutte, is still trying to hold the line \u2013 saying that allies must step up their military support for Kyiv and that Ukraine must be involved in any peace talks. But in reality Washington is now making the calls.<\/p>\n
That one phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin, due to be followed up by a meeting, has pushed Nato to the sidelines.<\/p>\n
Some defence ministers are trying to convey the message that nothing has fundamentally changed and Healey has again repeated the familiar lines that Nato would remain focused on keeping Ukraine in the fight and \u201cput them in the best position to secure a lasting peace through strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
On Wednesday, US Defence Secretary Pete Hegseth said European nations must provide the \u201coverwhelming\u201d share of funding for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Speaking to reporters ahead of the meeting on Thursday, Hegseth said the US\u2019s attempts to negotiate peace between Ukraine and Russia was \u201ccertainly not a betrayal\u201d of the Ukrainian soldiers who have been fighting against the invasion.<\/p>\n
Addressing fellow defence chiefs later, he added that the US was \u201ccommitted to expediting the process\u201d of foreign military sales, to ensure \u201cour allies get what they need when they need it\u201d.<\/p>\n
Healey said the UK had \u201cheard a clear message from the US about stepping up and we are\u201d, pointing out a new \u00a3150m package of military aid including drones, tanks and air defence systems for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ukrainians are fighting bravely,\u201d said Healey. \u201cIts our jobs as defence ministers here at Nato to put them in the best position to secure a lasting peace through strength.\u201d<\/p>\n
Defence minister Maria Eagle echoed Healey\u2019s comments in the House of Commons when asked by former prime minister Rishi Sunak if UK and European allies should provide \u201cmilitary support and potentially military presence\u201d in Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Eagle said: \u201cWe aim to put Ukraine in the strongest possible position to enable it to negotiate, and that involves continuing to supply them with the arms and weapons that they need\u201d.<\/p>\n
The US indicated that it was unlikely Ukraine would return to its pre-2014 borders under a deal, while there was not a realistic prospect of Ukraine joining the Nato military alliance.<\/p>\n
Nato members have previously pledged their support for an \u201cirreversible path\u201d to future membership for Ukraine.<\/p>\n
Healey said on Wednesday that welcoming the country to Nato would take \u201csome time\u201d, emphasising that the focus \u201cfor now\u201d should be on ensuring Kyiv was in a strong position ahead of potential peace talks.<\/p>\n
Reform UK leader Nigel Farage also voiced his support for Ukraine joining the alliance, telling GB News the move was \u201cessential\u201d.<\/p>\n
But Nato solidarity and strength has been weakened by the clear message from Washington \u2013 that in trying to bring an end to the war, it is not prepared to bankroll military support for the Kyiv, or allow Ukraine to join Nato.<\/p>\n
Nor does it believe Ukraine should expect the return of all its territory lost to Russia. It\u2019s a very different message.<\/p>\n
Rutte is trying to salvage some credibility by urging allies to dramatically ramp up defence spending. That, he hopes, will build bridges and influence with Washington.<\/p>\n
But President Trump has set a very high bar that few can meet \u2013 spending up to 5% of their GDP on defence. Most allies struggled to meet the 2% target set over a decade ago.<\/p>\n
Commons leader Lucy Powell said the government was \u201ccommitted to working towards\u201d increasing its current spend of 2.3% of GDP to 2.5%.<\/p>\n
She told the House of Commons that defence spending had been \u201ctoo low to meet the strategic needs of our country in this context\u201d.<\/p>\n
So far criticism of Donald Trump has been muted. But that carefully calibrated united Nato front on Ukraine \u2013 that has survived until now \u2013 is fraying. So are efforts to keep President Putin isolated as an international pariah.<\/p>\n
The German Defence Minister, Boris Pistorius, has been braver than most. He said \u201che regretted\u201d that the US administration had already made concessions to Russia before the talks had started.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
There can be no negotiation \u201cabout Ukraine without Ukraine\u201d, the UK\u2019s defence secretary has warned. John Healey was speaking ahead of a Nato meeting of defence ministers in Brussels on Thursday after US President Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed to begin negotiations to end the war. Healey told reporters: \u201cWe\u2019ve seen the calls from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-110384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110384","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=110384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/110384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=110384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=110384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=110384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}