The United States will know within weeks whether Russia is serious about peace in Ukraine, United States Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on 4 April after European allies accused Moscow of being slow to call for a ceasefire by the Donald Trump administration.
“We will know soon enough, within weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope it is. It would be good for the world if this war ended. But obviously we have to test that assumption,” said Rubio, who is wrapping up his first visit to NATO headquarters in his new post.
According to a Radio Liberty correspondent, the wish that the U.S. should set a clear deadline for Russia and Moscow should make it clear whether it is ready for peace or not was expressed to the press by many European ministers over the past two days at NATO headquarters.
Meanwhile, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte emphasised that NATO countries have already promised 20 billion euros worth of aid to Ukraine in the first three months of this year, compared to 50 billion euros for the whole of last year. However, some of the future aid packages are for several years.
Rutte also once again praised US efforts to bring peace to Ukraine: “Obviously, the ball is now on the Russian side, so we’ll have to see what happens… I’m really impressed with the way the Americans are conducting these negotiations and the fact that they are informing both the Europeans and Ukraine – Ukraine, obviously, because it’s Ukraine we’re talking about, but also the European allies, letting them know what’s going on.”
The NATO secretary general also noted that even if there is peace in Ukraine soon, Russia will remain a major threat to NATO for years to come.
“For the whole of NATO it is clear: Russia is a long-term threat even if this war ends. Let’s not be naive about Russia, nobody is naive,” Rutte emphasised.
According to a Radio Liberty correspondent, this opinion was shared by many other ministers, when asked if the Alliance’s position had changed in light of the upcoming talks.
“The important thing is that we all agreed: Russia is a threat. If it wasn’t, I don’t see why we should continually increase defence spending,” Canadian Foreign Minister Melanie Joly said.
However, Europe is not ready to increase investments to 5 per cent of GDP, as demanded by the US. Exact figures were not agreed upon at this meeting, but they are targeting a level higher than three per cent.
“Five per cent is of course much more than the US itself spends; it is a very high target and we are not ready to make that kind of commitment right now. The main thing is to spend more and to do it more wisely,” said Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide.
“Frankly, I would have been even happier if such a set-up had existed 10 years ago. But at least we have it now. We see that Germany, Finland, Sweden and many other countries are investing more, and this is a good prospect,” Margus Tsahkna, Estonian Foreign Minister.
In the long term, European countries want to invest specifically in the European defence sector, as well as in the production of weapons by the Ukrainian defence industry.
On 11 March, US representatives managed to get Ukraine to agree to a 30-day ceasefire. Russian leader Vladimir Putin did not reject the idea, but put forward his own conditions.
Ukraine and Russia are also exchanging accusations of failing to observe the moratorium on strikes on each other’s energy facilities.