Brussels – To listen to the malignant, one would say that the new U.S. administration’s approach to European allies (or presumed allies) is one of divide and impera. Donald Trump meets with the men who hold power in the individual countries of the Old Continent, but he snubs—and makes his subordinates snub—the top leaders of the EU institutions. Or at least, this is the impression one gets from seeing the improvised cancellation of the bilateral between the heads of the EU and US diplomacies, Kaja Kallas and Marco Rubio.
Originally scheduled for this afternoon (Feb. 26), the meeting between the High Representative and the Secretary of State—who had met for the first and only time at the Munich Security Conference—was supposed to focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine and, specifically, on how to coordinate efforts between the two sides of the Atlantic to reach a negotiated resolution of the conflict. Moreover, after yesterday’s revelations on the go-ahead for the infamous Ukrainian rare earths agreement, the plate on the table of the two would have been even more appetising.
Yet, at the last minute, the meeting with Marco Rubio (who saw his Saudi counterpart Khalid bin Salman yesterday) was cancelled “due to scheduling issues,” as Anouar El Anouni, the spokesman for Kaja Kallas, announced early this afternoon.
I met with Saudi Minister of Defense Prince @kbsalsaud to discuss the importance of the U.S.-Saudi partnership. Strengthening this key relationship is a top priority for the Trump Administration, especially when it comes to working towards our shared interests across the Middle… pic.twitter.com/HKcEOfw11J
– Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) February 26, 2025
No further information is currently available on the kind of problems that would have occurred, nor on whether the former Estonian premier (who is visiting Washington until tomorrow) may have talks with other representatives of the U.S. administration. All that is known is that Kallas will see some members of Congress and discuss the war, as well as the staff of the EU delegation and that she will attend a public event at the Hudson Institute. Nothing else leaks out from spokesmen for the Commission, the Council and the External Action Service (EEAS, the EU’s Foreign Office).
The suspicion that there is little casualness and much intentionality in humiliating the head of EU diplomacy as in a modern-day Canossa is strong. The difference with the legendary affair of 1077, when Emperor Enric IV had to kneel for three days and nights in the snow outside Countess Matilda’s castle to have his excommunication lifted by Pope Gregory VII, is that the representatives of the two powers of the time (temporal and spiritual) were enemies by definition, where a solid alliance should bind Europe and the United State. However, Donald Trump is demonstrating that he no longer values this alliance, as he seems intent on setting up a new Jalta by candlelight with Vladimir Putin.
After all, the most powerful man in the world—free and otherwise—had found time at the beginning of the week to meet his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron, and he will find more tomorrow to welcome British Prime Minister Keir Starmer. The latter two speak primarily on behalf of their respective national interests (or, at most, on behalf of a potential Euro-British front that has not yet been fully delineated on the horizon).
Evidently, there is no time to meet with the leadership of EU institutions, perhaps precisely because they personify what Trump resents, namely a (fragile) political unity of the Old Continent. This is all the more true if they are critical of the tycoon’s muscular and transactional approach to international relations. And perhaps the fact that three out of four are women helps even less.
Recently, Kallas has repeatedly expressed her clear opposition to the U.S. administration’s choices on the Ukrainian dossier. Regarding the door in the face on Kyiv’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance, for example, she observed that “NATO membership is the strongest security guarantee there is,” further complaining that “giving (the Russians, ed) everything they want before the negotiations even begin” is nothing more and nothing less than “appeasement.” The reference (echoing a similar one by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky) is to the strategy adopted by European leaders in 1938, when in Munich, they fed Adolf Hitler’s then-Czechoslovakia, hoping to satiate his expansionist appetite. That time did not end well.
The High Representative also had something to say about the technical rehearsals of the thaw between Washington and Moscow held in mid-February in Saudi Arabia. After that meeting (organised bypassing both Kyiv and Brussels) between Rubio and Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov (sanctioned by the EU), she called for unity of Ukraine’s Western allies. Urging them not to fall into the “traps” of the Kremlin, which, she warned, “will try to divide us.” Prophetic words, in spite of herself.
English version by the Translation Service of Withub
