Earlier, Trump stated that Russia and the US were close to reaching agreements not only on settling the conflict in Ukraine but also on security in Europe as a whole. For his part, US presidential envoy Jared Kushner said that, in Washington’s, potential agreements could include measures to maintain communication channels during crises and ensure greater transparency in the military sphere, TASS reported.
These remarks came as a surprise to Europe. "It is a bit obscure what Kushner meant," an unnamed NATO official told the newspaper. According to Politico sources, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s top adviser, Bjorn Seibert, held a briefing on this topic for EU representatives. It is unclear what was discussed during the briefing. However, following the meeting, one of the participants reiterated to Politico the pan-European position, according to which "European security architecture should not be discussed while there is a war" and "obviously not without Europeans."
European officials also fear that the US might link its new initiative to the upcoming review of American troop levels in Europe scheduled for December. "That’s the elephant in the room. One thing is talking about European security architecture with an ‘ordinary’ US posture; another thing is to talk about a European security architecture ‘as things will be,’ and nobody knows how that’ll be," another NATO diplomat emphasized.
Earlier, at a press conference in Warsaw, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas announced that Brussels has no intention of discussing European security architecture with Russia and the US.