Did the US-Ukraine talks succeed or not, and is Europe a "double winner"?

We are now very doubtful whether Europe still has the most basic strategic vision.

The US "Politico" website's European edition published an article on the 19th, stating that although the tripartite meeting between the US, EU, and Ukraine ended hastily, Europe believes it has achieved a "double win," meaning that if Trump could truly end the Russia-Ukraine conflict and provide security guarantees to Ukraine, then Europe would also be a "winner";

Conversely, if Trump's mediation efforts failed, he would eventually find out that Putin "wasn't really trying to end the war," and thus would take a tougher stance toward Russia, so Europe would also "win" because Trump finally "realized he had been deceived by Putin."

It should be said that Europe's "double win" theory is truly ridiculous: these European officials talk big, arguing how they "win" and how they please Trump to pressure Russia, but they seem never to have realized that Trump has never prepared a feasible plan to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict from the beginning.

From these two US-Russia summits and the US-EU-Ukraine tripartite talks, it can be seen that Trump is now saying whatever he wants to whomever he meets, dragging things out as long as possible, so these meetings produced no consensus at all.

As for the so-called "Trump will eventually realize that Putin never intended to end the war," this is just Europe comforting itself, because Trump isn't the first time to be deceived by Putin: since taking office this year, Trump has repeatedly called or publicly threatened Putin on social media to stop the war, but was it useful?

It wasn't. In short, the relationship between Trump and Putin is like "Zhou Yu beating Huang Gai, one willing to hit, the other willing to be hit": since Trump is willing to be deceived by Putin, it's pure fantasy for Europe to expect Trump to realize he has been deceived by Putin.

Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1840949707930628/

Statement: This article represents the views of the author.