Ex-Swedish PM slams ‘amateurish’ peace talks of ‘non-rules based’ US

The US administration is destabilising, against the rules-based order, and its unwillingness to confront Vladimir Putin makes President Trump’s attempts to broker peace ‘amateurish’, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt has told the BBC in an interview. 

“We have an American administration that has made America a country that is destabilising, and that is clearly, explicitly against the rule-based order, clearly not respecting what we Europeans see as fundamental to our security – that is the integrity and sovereignty of Ukraine – and not ready to confront Putin,” Bildt, who currently co-chairs think tank the European Council of Foreign Relations, said in the interview on Sunday. 

Achieving peace “is not going to be possible unless you put pressure on Putin”, Bildt said, adding: “I don’t think anyone thinks its going to be possible to bring an end to the war without putting pressure on Russia. If there’s no pressure on Russia Mr Putin is going to continue.”

He said that in recent weeks the US had made “U-turns and concessions, and giving up positions”, but “Russia hasn’t changed one millimetre on its demands”.

“They [Russia] continue the military offensive, they make clear that all their demands, the capitulation of Ukraine, remain on the table. To believe that to say to Mr Putin: ‘Please give up,’ is in my opinion amateurish,” Bildt said.

Bildt gave the interview in the context of the summit taking place in London on Sunday on the future of Ukraine. More than a dozen European leaders and representatives from Canada and Turkey are also attending.