Stunned NATO tries to get to terms with Trump’s Ukraine sledgehammer approach

BRUSSELS (CN) — Europeans on Thursday attempted to signal no Trump-Putin Ukraine peace talks should happen without them being at the table, after Washington threw the world’s biggest military alliance into disarray.

Arriving for the second day of a NATO defense ministerial in Brussels, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rejected criticism of Washington’s negotiating strategy with Russia.

“Make no mistake, President Trump will not allow anyone to turn Uncle Sam into ‘Uncle Sucker,’” Hegseth told reporters gathered at NATO headquarters in Brussels. He repeated a previous Trump administration talking point that Europe should be primarily responsible for defense on its own continent.

On Thursday, Hegseth doubled down on comments made on Wednesday that seemed to draw new red lines and constitute a shift of U.S. policy toward Ukraine. He also spooked European NATO allies with comments that could see concessions to Moscow, including when it comes to U.S. troop levels in Europe.

“I think it would be fair to say that things like future funding, either less or more, could be on the table in negotiations,” Hegseth told reporters, stating it would be ultimately up to President Donald Trump to decide.

Trump’s unilateral move on Wednesday to “immediately” start Ukraine peace negotiations with Russia — stunning European allies — overshadowed the talks, raising alarm in both Brussels and Kyiv about the next steps in the plans.

“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said hours after the announcement and his bilateral phone call with Trump.

He is expected to meet a U.S. delegation led by Vice President JD Vance in Germany on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference on Friday.

At NATO, speaking to reporters after the two-day meeting in Brussels, Secretary-General Mark Rutte walked a tightrope as he tried to balance emotions.

“Hegseth said in Stuttgart that there are no plans to reduce troop levels. At the same time, the U.S. [has been] quite irritated for a long time (…) that they’re spending more than NATO’s European allies and Canada, so we need to do more,” he said, referring to Brussels and Washington increasingly being on the same page on the need for more European burden-sharing.

On Ukraine, however, it did not work well.

“We always knew a call would happen soon and teams are consulting each other,” Rutte told reporters. He is expected to meet with Vance and Trump’s envoy for Ukraine/Russia, Keith Kellogg, at the Munich Security Conference this week.

European NATO diplomats across the board had univocally taken a firm joint line toward Trump’s approach, repeating a long-standing Western mantra that “nothing on Ukraine should be negotiated without Ukraine” and Europeans at the table.

“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” the EU’s top diplomat Kaja Kallas told reporters at NATO headquarters before the talks.

Estonian Defense Minister Hanno Pevkur told reporters the EU has to be at the table.

“Europe has put sanctions on Russia, Europe is investing in Ukrainian defense and Europe is rebuilding Ukraine with European Union money, with our bilateral aid, et cetera," he added.

Europe will be the ones providing security guarantees to Ukraine, hence there is “no option to not be at the table” Dutch Defense Minister Ruben Brekelmans said.

Sweden’s Defense Minister Pål Jonson said that for Stockholm, it would “be very natural also that we as European allies are engaged into these discussions” as his country provided a brunt to Ukraine’s military support.

U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey told reporters that “there can be no negotiation about Ukraine without Ukraine, and Ukraine’s voice must be at the heart of any talks."

The next stop for Europeans to bring their point across will be Munich, where European diplomats will try to seek out American counterparts in various constellations — from bilateral talks to the Quint — the U.S. and the Big Four of Western Europe — and G7 foreign ministers’ formats.

Vance is expected to address the forum Friday.