Trump-Zelenskyy Meeting: European Allies Set to Attend in Washington

Highlights

Presidents, PMs and heads of Nato and European Commission to accompany Ukraine’s leader at White House

European leaders are arriving in Washington on Monday before a meeting with Donald Trump in the Oval Office with Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Zelensky diplomacy will provide a show of support for Zelenskyy as he faces what are expected to be attempts to bully him by Trump into accepting a pro-Russia. The Europeans Zelensky Trump talks as Zelenskyy’s “bodyguards” and their presence in Washington comes with memories fresh of the verbal mauling the Ukrainian president received during his last Oval Office visit in February. So, who are they?

Mark Rutte

Rutte has a track record of flattering Trump for strategic gain, to a degree that some allies find cringe-making. In June he described the capricious US president as “Daddy” in an effort to avoid disastrous outbursts at the Nato summit. He has constantly praised Trump in public, including in a recent interview on Fox News, and credits him for Nato members spending 3.5 of GDP on defence. In a statement that stressed Europe mustn't calculate heavily on Washington to insure its security, Rutte was echoing the sentiments of Trump.

Ursula von der Leyen

For Trump she is a reminder of European leaders Washington importance as an economic bloc. It's been only two weeks that US signed a trade deal in the EU. On the new relationship Trump said: “We have the biggest trading partnership in the world.” She hosted Zelenskyy in Brussels on Sunday. She noted that following an agreement to end war, Ukraine should be transformed into a nation that is so secure that no aggressor will ever attempt to take it on by imposing security measures, and without any restrictions on its military power.

Ursula von der Leyen

On the new relationship Trump said: “We have the biggest trading partnership in the world.” She hosted Zelenskyy in Brussels on Sunday. She said that in the wake of the signing of a peace accord in Ukraine the next Ukraine US summit must ensure that the country is "well-defended and impossible to subdue," without limiting its military forces.