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Analysis

Trump-Putin phone call a cold shower for Ukraine and NATO ambitions

Frank Gardner
Security correspondent

Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin have a report they have a personal relationship.

In some ways, this is pretty worrying, because during Trump’s first term, he said very publicly that he preferred to listen to Putin rather than his own intelligence agencies – which was a real shock to the intelligence community in the United States.

But the fact that these two leaders have something to talk about, I think is pretty promising.

You have to remember what Trump’s priorities are. For him, it’s about securing the southern border, it’s about trade, it’s about China – he’s not so interested in Europe.

His great message, which goes back to what his defense secretary has said to NATO partners in Europe, is ‘Ukraine is your problem, this is Europe, you sort out what you spend more on defense’.

Britain has annoyed whether it raises defense expenses from 2.3 to 2.5% of GDP – but Trumps threw all this out the window and demanded that 5% be used when America doesn’t even use it. It is prohibitive to most European nations.

But you have big countries like Spain and Italy that use less than the mandated 2%, and the United States asks why should the US taxpayer have to bear that burden if you are not prepared to pay for your own defense?

So this today has been a bit of a cold shower for both Ukraine and NATO.