What Rubio’s statement about halting peace efforts means: Klimkin explains U.S. position
Klimkin called U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s statement about a possible halt to Washington’s peace initiatives a form of political blackmail. The former minister explained what this could mean.
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Former Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin
The statement by U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio about possibly ending U.S. attempts to resolve the war in Ukraine peacefully is blackmail. What will the U.S. do next — put pressure on Russia or simply step away from the issue?
Former Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin answered this question in an interview with TSN.ua.
Klimkin called such statements from the U.S. entirely logical. In his view, the only question was when the Americans would exit peace talks regarding Ukraine.
“This means blackmail: "If you don’t want to negotiate and compromise, then goodbye." But clearly, they don’t want to. This is actually Trump’s political logic and capital. He personally promised to end this war. Moreover, he said that no one but him would be able to do it. And for him, this is a matter of personal honor, if not political honor. I don’t know if political honor even exists, but if it does, then this is practically a code-based concept,” the former head of Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.
“Marco said everything correctly from his point of view. It means that if the negotiations go off track or stall at some point, then it’s your responsibility,” Klimkin added.
He clarified that Rubio also played with the concept of responsibility. He indicated that “we are helping you, but these are your negotiations, again, and you have to move forward with them, otherwise they won’t stop. But this also means that if you screw it up — the talks and the responsibility are entirely yours.”
According to the former minister, between the lines of the U.S. Secretary of State’s statement, it can be inferred that the Americans will not provide assistance, or at the very least, they will not do so in the same way as before.
“And in my opinion, this is absolutely undisguised, albeit more or less nicely wrapped blackmail after Paris. The fact that they made this move now is understandable, but it’s also clear that different people on the American side are leading the negotiations,” Klimkin said.