Demonstrative support: French President Emmanuel Macron welcomes Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen in Paris on Tuesday.Image: keystone
analysis
The Europeans are in a clinch: They are united against Trump’s plans – but they also don’t want to spoil things with him when it comes to Ukraine.
Jan 6, 2026, 9:47 p.mJan 6, 2026, 9:47 p.m
Stefan Brändle, Paris / ch media
If you want, you can also speak plainly. “Greenland belongs to its people,” declared the highest representatives of Germany, France, Great Britain, Italy, Poland and Spain in a short but succinct communiqué on Tuesday.
The paper, published before a Ukraine meeting in Paris, admits that the Arctic is increasingly contested economically and geopolitically. The EU leaders and the Kingdom therefore want to ensure the security of the ice zone with their NATO partners, including the USA. But as far as Greenland is concerned, the decisions rest with Greenland and Denmark. “And only with them,” emphasize the six European heavyweights, who also deliberately had Denmark sign the appeal.
This demonstration of European unity was not a given. Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, for example, expressly approved the American military operation in Venezuela at the weekend as a “defensive” act of self-defense. In the case of Venezuela for the US raid, but in Greenland against it: This balancing act shows the effort of the Europeans to find a clear and united position against American President Donald Trump.
American “backstop”
At the same time, they do not want to jeopardize their years of efforts for Ukraine. French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Keir Starmer had already set up a “coalition of the willing” for Kiev in February 2024. On Tuesday you were able to welcome an American delegation for the first time in Paris.
But their presence hung by a thread. French diplomats undoubtedly went too far when they sought “convergence” or even “union” between Europeans, Americans and Ukrainians. The US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner – Secretary of State Marco Rubio was unable to attend due to Venezuela – kept a conspicuous low profile in Paris. Apparently they did not go into more detail about the guarantees with which the strongest military power is supposed to help secure peace in Ukraine. Without this American “backstop”, the entire pacification plan of the 35 “willing” states is of little use.
A three-stage safeguard for any ceasefire is planned. The front line would be provided by the Ukrainian army, the second by members of the coalition “in or outside Ukraine,” as French planners specified. For example, German soldiers remained outside Ukraine, as Chancellor Friedrich Merz didn’t even have to specify in Paris.
The USA should provide the third line – only: how and where exactly, whether military or not, nobody in Paris said. It also remains unclear what would happen if the Russians violated the ceasefire. In Paris, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had to admit that the 1,400-kilometer-long front line cannot be completely secured militarily. Moscow would not approve of NATO soldiers in Ukraine anyway. And he doesn’t want a ceasefire until further notice. (aargauerzeitung.ch)