Upcoming Biden’s Swansong

There are strong indications that he will push the leadership of the 57 countries who will be at this meeting to send more money and weapons to Ukraine as well as continuing political and informational support to this unfortunate country whose leadership turned into cannon fodder for the West. Remains to be seen if he will call for NATO membership to what is left of Ukraine after nearly 1,000 days of war with Russia.

A lame-duck leader will try pass the button of this policy to Kamala Harris. That is if she wins in November, but if Trump wins, there will be another story that already forces many sleepless nights for warmongers in Washington, London, and Brussels. 

The expired Ukraine’s President Zelensky will be there with the latest version of “victory plan.” In his video address, he said that his government, military, and diplomatic officials would do everything they could in the coming days to ensure that the Ramstein meeting could become “positive for our defense, for our vision of how the war should end.” Zelensky has already presented this plan in Washington, and it includes lifting restrictions on the use of long-range missiles deep into Russian territory. The White House said that this plan contained “a number of productive steps.”

The usually well-informed Financial Times, citing unnamed diplomats, reported that Ukraine ceding land to Russia to gain NATO membership may be the “only game in town.” Both former and current NATO’s General Secretaries endorsed this approach.

Jens Stoltenberg outlined a scenario in which Ukraine could become a member of the alliance, even if some of its territories remain occupied. He provided examples to illustrate his point, comparing Ukraine’s situation to Japan, which enjoys U.S. security guarantees that do not extend to the Kuril Islands—a territory Japan considers its own but is currently controlled by Russia. He also referenced West Germany during the Cold War, which regarded East Germany as part of a unified nation, despite NATO’s defense obligations only applying to West Germany.

Matt Rutte during his recent trip to Kyiv said that  “Ukraine is closer to NATO than ever before, and other leaders of NATO countries have this week declared that “Ukraine’s path to membership is “irreversible.”

Nevertheless, any decision regarding Ukraine’s NATO membership must be collectively decided by all NATO allies, and previously, at least two countries, Hungary and Slovakia, resisted this action. This is why several US Republican senators visited Hungary last week, trying to pressure Budapest to change its mind.  US Ambassador to Hungary David Pressman issued a statement quoting one of the Senators, Jerry Moren, who emphasized the delegation’s worries about Hungary’s expanding relations with Russia and the erosion of its democratic institutions. “It is in our common interests that our countries cooperate closely. We call on Hungary to listen to the allies’ warnings and respond to them.”

The Ramstein meeting will come at a crucial juncture for Ukraine before the US election next month. Republican candidate Donald Trump has long been critical of Zelensky and his push for more billions of US taxpayer dollars. His strong backer, Republican Senator from Alabama Tommy Tuberville devastated US foreign policy using critical points shared by many well-known American experts. 

The senator delivered a floor speech criticizing the Biden-Harris administration for prolonging the unwinnable war in Ukraine at the expense of American taxpayers. He highlighted NATO’s Eastern expansion that provoked this war by reminding of assurances given to Moscow by many Western states, including the US, that no up-eastward expansion of NATO towards Russia would ever happen but instead this number grew from 16 to 32.

Ask yourself, said Tuberville, “How would the U.S. react if China or Russia entered a mutual defense organization with Mexico or Canada? How would we react? What if they started basing troops or participating in military exercises just miles from our homeland?”

So, who among Americans will Biden listen to or quote in his Swansong in Ramstein? Those who believe it’s about time Washington stopped funding a proxy war and negotiated a peace agreement with Moscow, or those in the war party who want to continue it despite, in the words of Tuberville, “huge, disastrous consequences coming in the very near future.”

I am afraid his choice will be wrong and many of us might dearly pay for it.