The World Economic Forum in Davos always illuminates what is important in global affairs. This year, three speeches stood out. Those by Donald Trump, Mark Carney and Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump made a disgustingly anti-European speech, directed against the continent that hosted him. Trump’s lackeys, Howard Lutnick and Scott Bessent, were even cruder – Lutnick managing to be jeered at a private dinner in the very polite Davos. Their presentations underlined the alienation of Europe and the US from one another.
This rift will last as long as Trump stays the US president. Even Europe’s big nationalist parties protested. After all, nationalists do not like foreign insults against their countries.
Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney stunned with a very eloquent speech. He drew on Vaclav Havel on how you stand up against a bully, which today is the US.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, French President Emmanuel Macron, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz struck a similar note. They focused on Trump’s call for the US annexation of Greenland, but the essence was that Europe was standing up firmly against US aggression.
They were apparently so effective that before he left Davos, Trump promised not to annex Greenland. Though, since Trump lies all the time, we cannot take that for certain.
By contrast, Zelensky’s lack of criticism of the US disturbed me.
President Zelensky’s speech was the greatest surprise to me. It was a strong, well-formulated, and candid statement.
Zelensky must have gotten a new speechwriter. Its main theme was criticism of Europe for being too slow, which is, of course, true, but unlike the US, Europe has strongly supported Ukraine. A month ago, the EU promised Ukraine €90 billion ($106 billion) over the next two years. Was it really wise to criticize the only hand that feeds you so sharply?
By contrast, Zelensky’s lack of criticism of the US disturbed me. Since Trump became president of the United States again, he has stopped all financial and military aid to Ukraine. This is a major disgrace, but Zelensky did not mention it.
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff has gone seven times to Russia to meet with Putin, each time for hours, but never to Ukraine. Trump is criticizing Zelensky all the time, but hardly ever or only lightly Putin. Time and again, Trump complains about corruption in Ukraine, but never in Russia, although Transparency International shows that corruption is far worse in Russia. It is obvious that Trump prefers Putin and Russia.
Europe supports Ukraine, while Trump supports Putin.
The main lesson from Davos this year is that Europe won against Trump over Greenland because the Europeans finally stopped flattering Trump and stood up in joint criticism of him, but Zelensky did the opposite. He stated: “Why can President Trump stop tankers from the shadow fleet and seize oil – but Europe doesn’t?”
Trump seized one tanker with Venezuelan oil and sold it, putting the payment into a bank account in Qatar of unknown ownership. This was one single action, while Europe has sharply cut its oil and gas imports from Russia and sanctioned the Russian shadow fleet – unlike the US under Trump.
Zelensky is right in stating that “Russian oil must be stopped and confiscated and sold for Europe’s benefit,” but Europe is gradually moving there, while Trump is discussing new Arctic oil developments with Russia.
Europe supports Ukraine, while Trump supports Putin. He stated that clearly in two votes in the UN General Assembly, voting with Russia against condemning its invasion of Ukraine. Trump has hardly imposed any sanctions on Russia after he returned as president, except for the sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil, for which exceptions have been provided, while Europe has enhanced sanctions on Russia and done a lot to reduce Putin’s funding for his war against Ukraine.
Zelensky repeats the conventional wisdom: “No security guarantees work without the US.” Really? With the Budapest memorandum of December 1994, the United States showed that its “security assurances” were worthless.
Listen to Trump! He repeats his doubts all the time that he would ever do anything for NATO allies. Trump’s “Security guarantees” are obviously worthless. Zelensky correctly notes that: “Right now, NATO exists thanks to the belief…that the United States will act… But what if it doesn’t?”
Yes, Trump tells us that he would probably not lift a finger. Zelensky knows that, and he had better realize that the United States will never help Ukraine against Russia as long as Trump remains the US president.
The more I read Zelensky’s speech, the more confused it appears: “Europe looks lost, trying to convince the US President to change. But he will not change.” All true, but that means Ukraine can only hope for Europe’s support. Complain about your enemies (Trump) more than about your supporters (all of Europe minus Orban).
The Ukrainian message should be quite different:
- We are sorry that the United States under Trump supports Russia and Putin and not Ukraine. We regret that the US has stopped providing any support. We do not appreciate that the US tries to convince us to give up land to Russia.
- We are grateful for all the financial and military support we receive from Europe, not only the EU but also Norway and the United Kingdom. We need €100 billion ($118 billion) in international assistance each year to stay afloat.
- We want to become a full-fledged member of the EU as soon as possible, and we are happy to comply with all EU conditions for doing so, as long as they do not imply impermissible costs on our war-torn country.
- We encourage Europe to tighten the sanctions on Russia to force Russia to end its war of aggression against our country.
- Ukraine can and wants to be crucial to the military defense of Europe against Russia, but in return, we call on Europe to stand up against Russia together with us.
The views expressed are the author’s and not necessarily of Kyiv Post.