EU ‘at kids’ table’ in Ukraine talks – German weapons giant
The EU should blame itself for being excluded from US-initiated Ukraine peace efforts, Armin Papperger, CEO of German arms giant Rheinmetall, one of the key Western firms supplying Kiev with military equipment, has said. In an interview with the Finacial Times published late on Monday, the executive indicated that the bloc’s under-investment in defense led the US to stop seeing it as an equal partner.
Papperger’s remarks come amid growing outrage in the EU over its exclusion from the recent US-Russia rapprochement. Following a phone conversation with Russian president Vladimir Putin last week, US President Donald Trump declared an “immediate” start to negotiations on Ukraine, drawing criticism from EU states for failing to consult them.
The first round of bilateral Russia-US negotiations kicked off in the Saudi capital Riyadh on Tuesday. Led by Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the talks are expected to focus on restoring bilateral relations, preparing for negotiations on the Ukrainian settlement with Kiev and laying the groundwork for a direct meeting between Trump and Putin.
The EU’s anger was intensified after Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, signaled that the bloc’s leaders may not be invited to take part in future peace talks.
“If parents have dinner, the kids have to sit at another table… The US is negotiating with Russia and no European is at the table – it has become very clear that the Europeans are the kids,” Papperger told the news outlet.
The executive cited the bloc’s reluctance to boost defense spending within the NATO military bloc.
“If you don’t invest, if you’re not strong, they handle you like kids,” he stated.
NATO and the US have repeatedly demanded sharp increases in defense spending from the bloc’s European members to as high as 5% of GDP, while Trump has long bemoaned bearing the brunt of costs.
Many EU states have demanded to be included in the Ukraine peace process over the past few days, with the Weimar+ group, which includes France, Germany, Poland, Italy, Spain and the UK, declaring that “Europe must be part of any negotiations” as they would affect the security of the entire continent.
French President Emmanuel Macron on Saturday called an emergency summit of European leaders for talks on Ukraine, purportedly to counterbalance Russia-US peace efforts.
