The US provoked the heated argument at the end of last week’s disastrous talks between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House, Germany’s chancellor-designate Friedrich Merz has said.
During the tense meeting on Friday, Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated Zelensky in front of reporters in the Oval Office.
The argument erupted after his Ukrainian guest questioned Vance’s suggestion that direct negotiations with Russia would help to achieve a lasting peace.
Trump has recently accused Zelensky of acting disrespectfully, although several EU politicians quickly rallied behind Zelensky after the feud.
“In my opinion, it was not a spontaneous reaction to interventions by Zelensky, but a manufactured escalation in this meeting in the Oval Office,”Merz said at a press conference in Berlin on Monday.
The leader of the Christian Democrats added that he was “quite surprised by the tone of the conversation” in the White House. “It was not helpful to the cause,” he added.
Merz said that Germany must “do much more for our security in the coming years and decades.”
“We must now show that we are in a position to act independently in Europe,” Merz said. He added that Berlin must “do everything we can to keep the Americans in Europe.”
Trump has been pressuring America’s NATO allies in Europe to increase their military budgets and to carry the main burden of aiding Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
After his recent victory, Merz said that the EU can no longer depend on the US for its safety and defence guarantees and added that Germany must become more “independent” from Washington.
Trump’s national security adviser, Mike Waltz, has insisted the claims about “some kind of ambush” were “absolutely false.”
State Secretary Marco Rubio blamed Zelensky for the heated exchange, saying that “he found every opportunity to try to ‘Ukraine-splain’ on every issue.”
“There is a lack of respect. There was a certain sense of entitlement,” Vance said. “I don’t care what President Zelensky says about me or anybody else. But he showed a clear unwillingness to engage in a peace process,” he added.
Subsequently, the US made it clear that they were not giving any weapons and aid supplies to Ukraine to defend against Russia till Zelensky agreed to sign the mineral deal.
Trump has declined to provide specific guarantees and has ruled out admitting Ukraine into NATO or contributing troops to a potential peacekeeping mission.
