In the annals of trans-Atlantic diplomacy, Monday’s meeting between President Trump and European leaders may go down as one of the stranger summits in memory. Historic, yet uncertain in its outcome; momentous, yet ephemeral in its effect on the war in Ukraine; choreographed, yet hostage to the impulses of a single man, Mr. Trump.
As Europe’s leaders began returning to their slumbering capitals, diplomats and foreign policy experts struggled to make sense of a midsummer’s meeting with Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky that often had a dreamlike quality — with made-for-TV moments and unexpected interludes.
The seven European leaders put forward a show of support for Mr. Zelensky and unity with each other. They won a potentially vital, if vague, expression of support from Mr. Trump for postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and sidestepped a discussion of territorial concessions, according to Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany.
Still, they all but acquiesced to Mr. Trump’s abandonment of a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine as a condition for further talks. Analysts said that put Europe’s leaders essentially where they were before Mr. Trump’s meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Alaska last week: subject to the president’s faith that he can conjure a deal with the Russian leader to end the grinding war.
“In Anchorage and in Washington, it was a triumph of empty vagueness and meaningless commitments,” said Gérard Araud, who served as France’s ambassador to the United States during Mr. Trump’s first term. “In both cases, no firm decision has been taken. Nothing has changed.”
Mr. Araud said Mr. Trump’s reassuring words about security guarantees, and the lack of a blowup between him and Mr. Zelensky, were a relief for Europeans. But the absence of a detailed, agreed plan for negotiations with Russia, he said, could store up problems for the future. The worrisome scenario, Mr. Araud said, was “talks and talks, which lead to nothing but possible misunderstanding.”
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