un short trip to the venue of the planned state visit, a four-way meeting at the Berlin chancellery instead of a conference in Ramstein which was supposed to coordinate future aid to Ukraine in the presence of 50 participating states, including many heads of state and government: Hurricane Milton, which occurred on October 9 in Florida, prevented American President Joe Biden from honoring the meetings planned in Germany, destabilizing the entire European political scene.
There is no other way to describe these events. Worse still: what happened – or more precisely what did not happen – in Germany illustrates the desolate state of European foreign and security policy at a critical period.
Why was it necessary to cancel the Ramstein summit? Just because the American head of state could not be present? Are the Europeans not strong enough to hold a conference without the participation of the American president, or, at the very least, in the presence of the Secretary of State or the Secretary of Defense of the United States? As demonstrated by defense pact just concluded in October between Germany and the United Kingdom, when the will is there, measures can be taken.
Prevarications and calculations
However, Europe needs more than these narrowly focused bilateral agreements, positive as they are. And this for an obvious reason: Ukraine is desperate for more aid. The third winter of the war launched by Russian President Vladimir Putin in February 2022 is fast approaching, and the situation in the country is deteriorating every week.
Ukraine will get “all the help she needs, for as long as it takes” : this is the usual refrain heard in most European capitals, particularly from the German government, for two and a half years now. However, even if it is repeated again and again, this statement simply does not correspond to reality.
The history of aid to Ukraine is one of constant procrastination and hesitation, of calculations and delaying strategies. And when nothing works anymore, we call on the American president to resolve the political impasse. But here it is: Joe Biden devoted a large part of this year (before his withdrawal from the presidential race) to his electoral campaign, and he is now making his farewell tour. A new head of state will be elected on November 5, and if his name is Donald Trump, there will be, for Europeans, no more pretexts to hide behind. The cancellation of the Ramstein summit represented the perfect opportunity for Europe to finally take the lead.
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Source: Lemonde