President Elect Donald J. Trump spoke with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz with the aim of restoring peace to the European continent and bringing about an end to the war in Ukraine.
With over two months left before being inaugurated as president again, Mr Trump has already assumed the role of peacemaker, embarking upon unofficial diplomatic talks with the principal players involved in the first major war in Europe since the Second World War, including with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Sunday evening, the Welt newspaper reports.
Government spokesman Steffen Hebestreit said the two leaders “agreed to work together towards a return to peace in Europe”. Berlin also vowed to “continue the decades-long successful cooperation between the governments of both countries.”
Besides Ukraine itself, Germany has been one of the largest losers of the war, with a cut-off of energy supplies from Russia following the invasion and the subsequent sabotage of the Nord Stream pipelines severely hampering the economy of Europe’s powerhouse.
During his first presidency, Mr Trump frequently criticized Germany’s reliance on Moscow for its energy while expecting the American taxpayer to subsidise its protection against Russia’s military threat.
German diplomats openly laughed at the then-president’s warnings of over-dependence on authoritarian regimes such as Russia. Yet, failing to heed Trump’s message left Berlin and much of Europe flat-footed by the February 2022 invasion.
The fallout of the failure continues to this day, with Chancellor Sholz’s coalition government collapsing this week in large part due to the economy, budgetary issues, and the victory of Donald Trump, who is expected to relaunch efforts to rebalance the trading relationship between the United States and Europe.
The collapse of the “traffic light” government in Berlin means that Scholz will have to govern from a minority position in the Bundestag until elections are held next year. With his leftist Social Democrat Party (SPD) trailing in the polls by double digits, Scholz will likely replaced by March at the latest with a new chancellor.
Similarly, French President Emmanuel Macron’s power has been severely undercut over the past few years, with embarrassing defeats in both the European Parliament and French legislative elections. This will likely mean that neither Berlin nor Paris will be in a position to meaningfully push back against Trump’s plans to broker a peace deal in Ukraine over the next few months.
With both of Europe’s main economic powers facing budget issues, it is also unlikely that there would be much of an appetite to continue funding Kyiv’s war effort without American cash.
Meanwhile, in addition to speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Chancellor Scholz, the president-elect reportedly spoke with Vladimir Putin this week. According to the Washington Post, Trump urged the Russian leader not to escalate the war while hinting at potential repercussions from the significant U.S. military presence in Europe. The Kremlin has denied the call took place.
The Wall Street Journal reported that Trump’s peace plan currently calls for freezing the conflict lines and ceding the Russian-occupied territory of Ukraine to Moscow. The plan also calls for an 800-mile demilitarized zone that would be policed by a yet unnamed third-party country.
The reported deal would also require Ukraine to forsake seeking membership in NATO for at least 20 years. In exchange, Washington would continue to supply Ukraine with arms to act as a deterrent against future aggression from Russia.