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Vice President JD Vance speaks during a plenary session at the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Action Summit in Paris, on Feb. 11. Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
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Ludovic Marin/AFP via Getty Images
Vice President JD Vance is set to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday, along with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, on the sidelines of the annual Munich Security Conference.
The meeting with Zelenskyy comes as Ukraine is about to mark three years of war with Russia. The Ukrainian leader and Vance are also speaking just two days after President Trump jumped in on negotiations to end the war.
Earlier this week, President Trump held a lengthy phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and said the two would meet face-to-face in Saudi Arabia soon. Trump afterward spoke with Zelenskyy over the phone.
"I think we're on the way to getting peace. I think President Putin wants peace, and President Zelenskyy wants peace, and I want peace. I just want to see people stop getting killed," Trump said to reporters after his conversation with Putin.
The conference in Germany is Vance's second major event on the world's stage this week. The vice president previously spoke at a conference on artificial intelligence in Paris on Tuesday before heading to Munich, where the Russia-Ukraine war has been a main focus at the conference in recent years.
But the Trump administration's posture thus far has appeared to cede more in Russia's favor – Trump said it's "unrealistic" for Ukraine to join NATO, something Putin has long been opposed to, and something Zelenskyy argues Ukraine needs in order to prevent future threats from Russia. Trump also said it was unrealistic for Ukraine to gain back its territory from before the war.
Max Bergmann, the director of the Europe, Russia, and Eurasia Program, said Trump's rhetoric is sparking "grave concern" in Ukraine, because the U.S. is taking a more neutral role in negotiations rather than advocating for Ukraine.
"I think there's a fear that the United States just simply doesn't want to be a part of it anymore… and so therefore is willing to assert a lot of leverage on Ukraine to essentially agree to what Ukrainians perceive would be a bad deal for them," Bergmann said.
"And so there's uncertainty about whether this administration is actually on Ukraine's side or is trying to act more as a neutral arbiter."
A 'whiplash' for Europeans
Vance has attended the Munich Security Conference in the past, including last year, before he was tapped to be Trump's running mate.
Last year, Vance said he thinks the United States should "pivot" from NATO and Europe to focus on East Asia. That is going to be the future of American foreign policy for the next 40 years. And Europe has to wake up to that fact," Vance said.
Bergmann said he expects Vance to reflect this ethos in his remarks on Friday.
"What you see from Vance is the sense that Europe just doesn't really matter very much to the United States… The U.S. wants a new bargain when it comes to transatlantic security, where it's going to be Europeans that are responsible for Europe's security, not the United States," Bergmann said.
But Bergmann cautioned that there are downsides to de-prioritizing Europe.
"We sort of in some ways get what we pay for by providing Europe security," Bergmann said. "I think there's an argument to be made that we should begin to try to rebalance it, and I think the danger of what the Trump administration is trying to do is sort of rebalance it too quickly."
"This is a real whiplash that the Europeans right now are experiencing and I think are likely to experience when Vance speaks to them at Munich."
