Europeans are reeling from a blizzard of Trump administration moves in recent days, even as Washington has said it remains committed to the NATO transatlantic alliance that has been the bedrock of European security for 75 years.
"The Munich Security Conference clearly showed that we are witnessing tectonic shifts of the order structures and also of the positioning of major powers. The United States really is the big question mark at the moment," political scientist and Bertelsmann Stiftung Executive Board Member, Daniela Schwarzer, told Reuters TV on Sunday.
"It has questioned international rules and at the same time it wants to be a player in major difficult situations. And Russia's war on Ukraine is one of those situations that the U.S. has picked to say we will be a key player here to end this war. Now, it doesn't make the situation easier for Ukraine in my view, because it is very difficult at this moment, first of all, to know exactly where the United States will be going in their positions," Schwarzer said.
Trump says he could meet 'very soon' with Putin about Ukraine
Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg said on Saturday Europe would not have a seat at the table for Ukraine peace talks after Washington sent a questionnaire to European capitals to ask what they could contribute to security guarantees for Kyiv.
France said on Sunday it would host a summit of European leaders on Monday to discuss the Ukraine war and European security as the continent tries to respond concretely to U.S. President Donald Trump's unilateral approach to the conflict.
"The European Union really needs to make sure it is not split apart by the U.S. administration. We have already been able to observe over the past few weeks of the Trump administration that he has closer ties with some and he doesn't meet others, for instance, the Italian prime minister or the Hungarian prime minister," said Schwarzer.
Zelenskiy: We won't accept deals reached behind our backs
Dozens of similar summits have shown Europe to be dithering, at times disunited and politically weak and struggling to come up with a cohesive plan to end the Ukraine war and dealing with Russia, three years into Moscow's invasion of its neighbor.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz will attend the summit, German government sources told Reuters, as will Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, a member of Poland's upper house of parliament said. They said the meeting aimed to see what immediate help can be give Ukraine, what concrete role Europe can play in providing security guarantees for Kyiv as well as how to strengthen Europe’s collective security.
It was not clear whether anything concrete would come out of it, they said.