Here are some sensible words.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to repair his relationship with US counterpart Donald Trump after a public spat at the White House on Friday.
…Qualifying the incident as “very unfortunate,” Mark Rutte said in an interview with the BBC that he’s spoken to Zelenskiy twice since and told him that “we really have to respect what President Trump has done so far for Ukraine.”
“We need to stick together, the United States, Ukraine and Europe, to bring Ukraine to a durable peace,” Rutte said, adding that he’d urged Zelenskiy to find a way to restore his relationship with Trump and his administration.
This is the probable outcome. The breakdown in the Oval Office did not appear to me to be an ambush by either side.
Zelensky’s rough honesty was incompatible with a vainglorious President Trump, and hillbilly jingoist VP Vance.
Alliances are underpinned by more than leaders. There are converging interests, economic and strategic, as well as deep state connections and normatives.
The lesson from the Oval Office meltdown is that personalities matter to the Trump administration much more than they do to others, and getting them wrong can be catastrophic.
Australia’s Ambassador to Washington, Kevin Rudd, is already hated within the White House, and should be immediately promoted to run the Embassy of the Holy See instead.
Before it’s too late.
