Wolfgang Ischinger writes in Foreign Affairs magazine on the context, fallout and implications of last week's meeting between Trump and Zelensky
The disastrous meeting between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance at the White House on February 28 has led to a stark moment of truth for the Western alliance. In the fallout with Zelensky and the end of U.S. support for the war effort, the Trump administration has not only shaken Ukraine. It has also called into question some of the bedrock assumptions that have undergirded the transatlantic relationship since World War II.
In European capitals, panic has set in. Some policymakers and analysts are speaking of the end of NATO, or the end of the West. They are terrified about U.S. intentions: Does Washington intend to actively undermine the long-term survival of Ukraine as a sovereign and free country? Is Trump trying to execute a “reverse Kissinger,” by charming Russian President Vladimir Putin into abandoning his marriage to Chinese leader Xi Jinping and making an unholy alliance with the United States? A huge chasm has opened in transatlantic trust—one that is bad for Washington’s global power projection and for its image as a benign hegemon, and potentially catastrophic for transatlantic cohesion and the vitality of NATO.
The challenge facing the West is daunting. But the alliance has endured strong doubts before. And there are powerful arguments—on both sides of the Atlantic—that might yet rescue the alliance and support a continued strong U.S. presence and involvement in Europe. And there is much that Europe itself can do to demonstrate why the United States is so much stronger with it than without it.
Wolfgang Ischinger is President of the Munich Security Conference Foundation Council and former German Ambassador to the United States.