The information has gone almost unnoticed. In a memo dating from July 20, the American intelligence director Tulsi Gabbard asked the 18 agencies she has under her thumb to stop sharing with the Allies, in particular the “Five Eyes” (five eyes), this alliance which has been bringing together since the end of the Second World War United States, Canada, Great Britain, Australia and New Zealand, the information concerning the peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine. These are now classified “Noforn”, ie “No Foreign National Dissemination” (no sharing with foreigners). Apart from diplomatic information and published press releases that the Allies continue to exchange with each other, the United States therefore manages this file alone in terms of intelligence.
This unprecedented decision is to be put into perspective with the way Donald Trump now deals with Europeans and his allies in general. The meeting last Wednesday in Washington, after the tête-à-tête with Volodymyr Zelensky, is as such symptomatic of a new Western order which is set up.
At first, it should be noted that it was the Europeans who wished, at the end of the Trump-Puttine meeting in Anchorage and the concerns she aroused, accompanying the Ukrainian president in Washington. It was undoubtedly also a question of avoiding him a humiliation like the one he had suffered in front of the cameras, we remember it, on February 28. In reality, Donald Trump did not first invite them. Then he accepted, insisting that he would see Volodymyr Zelensky first alone.
A unique format
So here they are sitting around a wooden table, with Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump, a unique format in the history of international relations. Just before, Donald Trump had welcomed them all on the steps of the White House and then received collectively in the Oval Office. The photo published immediately on the White House account is reminiscent of a teacher giving a lecture to his students who would take notes. The atmosphere is gradually relaxing.
Once everyone has taken their place around the wooden table, Donald Trump begins the session with a nice note to everyone. As it debits kinds on the tanned complexion of Friedrich Merz, “Where did you have such a tan?” »»the fact that he has “Aimé Emmanuel Macron from the first day” or that Ulula von der Leyen is “Probably more powerful than all the others around this table”we quickly understand that the American president is kindly noticed of them.
For the moment, the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky remains uncertain
Europeans have prepared for such a session by distributing the roles in advance and the speech towers, with the aim of keeping Donald Trump in the Western camp and to tear him away from the claws of Vladimir Putin. Stupor, at one point, Donald Trump gets up and who will he call? The same Vladimir Putin! He asks him if he is ready to meet Volodymyr Zelensky. Donald Trump seems to jubilant in his role as the planet’s chief negotiator. Europeans then understand that they are only there to endorse what he does and … pay the bill.
This is all the more obvious when Volodymyr Zelensky announces that Ukraine undertakes to buy per 100 billion dollars in American weapons funded by the European Union in order to obtain American guarantees for its security after the peace agreement with Russia … The Ukrainian President thanks them elsewhere. The famous “security guarantees”, the main point of discussion with the thorny sharing of territories and the final abandonment of the Ukrainian inclinations of joining NATO, actually appear as a way of resting on the European shoulders the burden of future American involvement in Ukraine.
Europe will pay
The roles are now distributed. Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are negotiating. Ukraine enters the loop in a second step, and ultimately, Europe pays. The “reinsurance force”, dear to Emmanuel Macron and which would consist in sending French and British soldiers to constitute a central pillar of the security guarantees provided by Europe to Ukraine after the war, has lead in the wing. “Unacceptable!” »» For Sergei Lavrov. The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs is categorically opposed to “A foreign intervention on a part of the Ukrainian territory”if they are troops from countries belonging to NATO.
The weight of Europe is also judged at symbols
For the moment, the meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky remains uncertain. We progressed, however. Vladimir Putin no longer refuses to meet his Ukrainian counterpart, but he expresses doubts about his legitimacy to sign peace, due to the fact that the mandate of Volodymyr Zelensky ended in 2024 and that there has been no election since. Volodymyr Zelensky wants to know the Russian version of Ukraine’s “security guarantees”. The choice of the place of this future meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelensky will be decisive to know if Europe still weighs. Emmanuel Macron pleads for Geneva, due to the historic neutrality of the country and the fact that it is a high place of world diplomacy.
Anticipating this choice, the Swiss Foreign Minister, Ignazio Cassis, offered immunity to Vladimir Putin despite the international arrest warrant which aims for the Russian leader. But other countries are in the ranks: Türkiye, Hungary, Russia, among others … The weight of Europe is also judged at symbols. The future of a conflict that takes place on its soil should decide here, even if the negotiations have long taken its way from Moscow and Washington.
