The choice of JD Vance – a major critic of US aid to Ukraine and US taxpayers funding European security – as Donald Trump’s running mate signals a “very significant shift” in US foreign policy in the event of that they win the elections, say defense experts.
The 39-year-old Republican senator, a former Marine and relative newcomer to politics, could very well be the next vice president from the United States in January.
It means that his views on foreign affairs, expressed in multiple interviews, articles and speeches, are being studied with new intensity.
They reveal – in line with their boss – a strong push to put the United States first, even at the expense of old alliances, such as the transatlantic alliance. NATO link, as well as the West’s struggle to counter Russia’s full-scale invasion Ukraine.
Instead, priority attention is focused on the threat posed by Porcelain and counter Iran.
A former senior British defense official predicted that a Trump-Vance White House would lead to the “immediate termination of all financial and military aid to Ukraine.”
A second defense source was less sure, asking whether the pair were “really going to strangle Ukraine” on their watch.
But Vance, who has opposed multibillion-dollar aid packages for kyiv, admitted in a 2022 podcast interview with Steve Bannon, a Trump adviser, “I don’t really care what happens in Ukraine one way or another.” according to the New York Times.
He has also written that the United States and Europe lack the industrial production capacity to be able to manufacture the volume of weapons necessary for Ukraine to win the war.
Instead, Trump’s new running mate advocates a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine.
In comments that will alarm kyiv and allies such as London, he dismissed as “fantastic” the idea – a central goal of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy – that Ukraine would take back all the territory captured by Russian forces since the first invasion of Crimea in 2014.
“By committing to a defensive strategy, Ukraine can preserve its valuable military personnel, stop the bleeding, and allow time for negotiations to begin,” Vance wrote in an article for the New York Times in April.
It underscores why the prospect of a second Trump presidency, with Vance as vice president, spells enormous new anxiety for Ukraine after more than two and a half years of full-scale war.
What does the election mean for NATO? Photo: Reuters
Read more:
Vance suggests UK is ‘first Islamist country with nuclear weapons’
How the security operation developed around the Trump shooting
“I hope there are other people on Trump’s team, like [former secretary of state Mike] Pompeo, who will balance Vance’s approach,” said kyiv-based Strategic Communications expert Liudmyla Dolhonovska.
“If I were a parliamentarian or a government official, I would immediately request a meeting with Vance to try to convince him to support Ukraine.”
It is not just Ukraine that should be concerned about Vance’s impact on the future shape of American foreign policy.
The UK and European NATO allies should be seriously planning right now for a massive – at high speed – increase in their own ability to defend themselves and deter threats if a second Trump White House becomes, as has been said, too much more isolationist and threat-focused. coming from China and not from Russia’s threat to Europe.
The former senior UK defense official, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that a second Trump administration would “start the process of dismantling NATO – I’m not exaggerating.”
In an article published in the Financial Times in February, Vance warned that the United States has “provided a security blanket for Europe for too long.”
Minister reacts to comment that “the United Kingdom is Islamist”
He was highly critical of the way in which the United Kingdom and other European states cut their defense budgets and cut the size of their respective armed forces and their ability to fight after the end of the Cold War, relying instead on protection of the most powerful. United States military.
“As the US defense budget approaches $1 trillion a year, we should see the money Europe has not spent on defense for what it really is: an implicit tax on the American people to ensure Europe’s security,” he wrote. Vance. .
He added: “The question every European nation must ask itself is: are you prepared to defend yourself? And the question the United States must ask itself is: if our European allies cannot even defend themselves, are they allies or clients?”
This story originally appeared on News.sky.com read the full story
