{"id":419866,"date":"2025-02-26T18:56:05","date_gmt":"2025-02-26T17:56:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/2025\/02\/26\/kaja-kallas-marco-rubio-incontro-canossa\/"},"modified":"2025-02-26T19:56:56","modified_gmt":"2025-02-26T18:56:56","slug":"if-washington-becomes-the-canossa-of-kaja-kallas-and-the-eu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/2025\/02\/26\/if-washington-becomes-the-canossa-of-kaja-kallas-and-the-eu\/","title":{"rendered":"If Washington becomes the Canossa of Kaja Kallas (and the EU)"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/i><\/strong>. Donald Trump<\/strong> meets with the men who hold power in the individual countries of the Old Continent, but he snubs\u2014and makes his subordinates snub\u2014the top leaders of the EU institutions. Or at least, this is the impression one gets from seeing the improvised cancellation of the bilateral<\/strong> between the heads of the EU and US diplomacies, Kaja Kallas<\/strong> and Marco Rubio<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Originally scheduled for this afternoon (Feb. 26), the meeting between the High Representative and the Secretary of State\u2014who had met\u00a0for the first and only time at the Munich Security Conference<\/a>\u2014was supposed to focus on Russia’s war against Ukraine<\/strong> and, specifically, on how to coordinate efforts between the two sides of the Atlantic to reach a negotiated resolution of the conflict<\/strong>. Moreover, after yesterday’s revelations<\/a> on the go-ahead for the infamous Ukrainian rare earths agreement<\/strong>, the plate on the table of the two would have been even more appetising.<\/p>\n

Yet, at the last minute, the meeting with\u00a0Marco Rubio<\/strong>\u00a0(who saw his Saudi counterpart\u00a0Khalid bin Salman<\/strong>\u00a0yesterday) was cancelled “due to scheduling issues<\/strong>,” as\u00a0Anouar El Anouni<\/strong>, the spokesman for\u00a0Kaja Kallas<\/strong>, announced early this afternoon.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

I met with Saudi Minister of Defense Prince @kbsalsaud<\/a> 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\u2026 pic.twitter.com\/HKcEOfw11J<\/a><\/p>\n

– Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) February 26, 2025<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

No further information<\/strong> is currently available<\/strong> 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<\/strong>\u00a0and discuss the war, as well as the staff of the EU delegation<\/strong>\u00a0and that she will attend a public event at the Hudson Institute<\/strong>. Nothing else leaks out from spokesmen for the Commission, the Council and the External Action Service (EEAS, the EU’s Foreign Office).<\/p>\n

The suspicion that there is little casualness and much intentionality in humiliating the head of EU diplomacy as in a modern-day Canossa<\/strong> is strong. The difference with the legendary affair of 1077, when Emperor Enric IV<\/strong> had to kneel for three days and nights in the snow outside Countess Matilda’s<\/strong> castle<\/strong> to have his excommunication lifted by Pope Gregory VII<\/strong>, 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<\/strong>.\u00a0However,\u00a0Donald Trump<\/strong>\u00a0is demonstrating <\/span>that he no longer values\u00a0this alliance,\u00a0as he seems intent\u00a0on\u00a0setting<\/a><\/span>\u00a0up a new Jalta <\/a>by candlelight with Vladimir Putin<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

\"Emmanuel<\/a>
U.S. President Donald Trump (right) hosts his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron in Washington, Feb. 24, 2025 (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

After all, the most powerful man in the world\u2014free and otherwise\u2014had found\u00a0<\/a>time at the beginning of the week<\/a>\u00a0to meet his French counterpart\u00a0Emmanuel Macron<\/strong>, and he will find more tomorrow to welcome British Prime Minister\u00a0Keir Starmer<\/strong>.\u00a0The latter two speak primarily on behalf of their respective national interests (or, at most, on behalf of a\u00a0<\/span>potential Euro-British front<\/strong>\u00a0that\u00a0<\/span>has not yet been fully delineated\u00a0<\/span><\/a>on the horizon).<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Evidently,\u00a0there is no time to meet with the leadership of EU institutions<\/strong>, perhaps precisely because they personify what Trump resents, namely\u00a0a (fragile) political unity of the Old Continent<\/strong>. This is all the more true if they are\u00a0critical of the tycoon’s muscular and transactional approach<\/strong> to international relations. And perhaps the fact that three out of four are women helps even less.<\/span><\/p>\n

Recently, Kallas has repeatedly expressed her\u00a0clear<\/strong>\u00a0opposition to the U.S. administration’s<\/strong> choices on the Ukrainian dossier. Regarding the door in the face on Kyiv’s entry into the North Atlantic Alliance, for example, she observed<\/a> that “NATO membership is the strongest security guarantee there is<\/strong>,” further complaining that “giving (the Russians, ed) everything they want before the negotiations even begin” is nothing more and nothing less than “appeasement<\/strong>.”\u00a0The reference (echoing a similar one by Ukrainian President\u00a0Volodymyr Zelensky<\/strong>) is to the strategy adopted by European leaders in 1938, when in Munich, they fed\u00a0Adolf Hitler’s<\/strong>\u00a0then-Czechoslovakia,\u00a0hoping to satiate his expansionist appetite<\/strong>.<\/span>\u00a0That time did not end well.<\/p>\n

\"volodymyr<\/a>
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky (photo via Imagoeconomica)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The High Representative also had something to say about the technical rehearsals of the thaw between Washington and Moscow<\/strong> held in mid-February<\/a> in Saudi Arabia.\u00a0After that meeting (organised bypassing both Kyiv and Brussels) between Rubio and Russian counterpart\u00a0Sergei Lavrov <\/strong>(<\/span>sanctioned by the EU),\u00a0she called for unity<\/a> of Ukraine’s Western allies.<\/span>\u00a0Urging them\u00a0not to fall into the “traps” of the Kremlin,<\/strong>\u00a0which, she warned, “will try to divide us<\/strong>.”<\/span>\u00a0Prophetic words, in spite of herself.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Like the excommunicated emperor at Matilde’s castle, the High Representative remains locked out of the rooms that matter. But Church and Empire were sworn enemies, while EU and US should be iron allies\u2014at least until Trump return<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7876,"featured_media":419857,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"episode_type":"","audio_file":"","podmotor_file_id":"","podmotor_episode_id":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","filesize_raw":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":{"format":"standard","override":[{"template":"1","parallax":"1","fullscreen":"1","layout":"right-sidebar","sidebar":"default-sidebar","second_sidebar":"default-sidebar","sticky_sidebar":"1","share_position":"top","share_float_style":"share-monocrhome","show_featured":"1","show_post_meta":"1","show_post_author":"1","show_post_author_image":"1","show_post_date":"1","post_date_format":"default","post_date_format_custom":"Y\/m\/d","show_post_category":"1","show_post_reading_time":"0","post_reading_time_wpm":"300","post_calculate_word_method":"str_word_count","show_zoom_button":"0","zoom_button_out_step":"2","zoom_button_in_step":"3","show_post_tag":"1","show_prev_next_post":"1","show_popup_post":"1","number_popup_post":"1","show_author_box":"0","show_post_related":"1","show_inline_post_related":"0"}],"image_override":[{"single_post_thumbnail_size":"crop-500","single_post_gallery_size":"crop-500"}],"trending_post_position":"meta","trending_post_label":"Trending","sponsored_post_label":"Sponsored by","disable_ad":"0","subtitle":""},"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_override_counter":{"view_counter_number":"0","share_counter_number":"0","like_counter_number":"0","dislike_counter_number":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[25707],"tags":[26327,26411,25802,30324],"class_list":["post-419866","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world-politics","tag-marco-rubio-en"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419866","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7876"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=419866"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419866\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":419886,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/419866\/revisions\/419886"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/419857"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=419866"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=419866"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.eunews.it\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=419866"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}