National Interests Delay Ceasefire, Trade Deals

President Donald Trump and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in White House on 5 June, 2025 

 

National Interests Delay Ceasefire, Trade Deals

Deepak Razdan

Saturday, 7 June, 2025

The New World continues to live in turmoil. Neither trade deals to halt tariffs war, nor a ceasefire to stop human bloodbath by missiles is in sight. The world’s most powerful rulers want peace but are unable to hasten agreements.

The leaders have met and engaged in phone talks. The results are surprising, particularly for the armed conflict, as the leaders belong to the same countries which saw the worst of the six-year World War II at close quarters, and celebrate its end each year on the Victory Day and the D-Day marking the Normandy Landings.

In discussions of war and peace, there is greater romance over the inevitability of wars, so to say, than over their resolution. The NATO Defence Ministers met in Brussels on Thursday, and there were earnest calls to raising defence budgets by member-States to five per cent of their GDPs.

This only meant war-preparedness. What about peace-preparedness, and achieving the opposite of bloodbaths? There are no conferences on sustenance of peace, and there is no stress on minimum allocations to achieve its continuity.

On Thursday, too, US President Donald Trump had a phone-talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping and received German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in the White House. On Wednesday, Mr Trump had talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on phone.

Perhaps never before, international leaders or their key emissaries had so many opportunities, and within such short intervals, to communicate over different crises. None can, however, see how close, or how far, the parties are from ending their disputes.

After Ukraine’s deadly drone attacks on long-distance Russian fighter planes parked in far-flung Russian airfields last Sunday, President Trump had a phone talk with Mr Putin. The US President posted on X “It was a good conversation, but not a conversation that will lead to immediate Peace.”

President Trump who publicly declared his commitment to help end the Ukraine-Russia war and sent his special envoy Steve Witcoff to Moscow to talk to Mr Putin for this, posted: “President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields.”

There was nothing comforting in this talk for anyone, except that an hour and 15 minutes talk had taken place between two great powers.

The two leaders spent some time discussing other issues also, including Iran’s decision pertaining to nuclear weapons. Mr Trump told Mr Putin that Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon.

On Thursday, again, Mr Trump had a talk with Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the two countries’ tariffs disputes. It was a positive development indeed, with the two leaders deciding to visit each other’s country.

Mr Trump posted “I just concluded a very good phone call with President Xi of China discussing some of the intricacies of our recently made, and agreed to, Trade Deal.” The call resulted in a very positive conclusion for both countries, he said.

“There should no longer be any questions respecting the complexity of Rare Earth products. Our respective teams will be meeting shortly at a location to be determined.” Mr Trump said there was no mention of the Ukraine-Russia conflict or Iran during the phone-talk.

On the 6th June, Mr Trump announced that US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and United States Trade Representative (USTR) Jamieson Greer will meet the Chinese representatives on the Trade Deal between the two countries on 9th June in London. “The meeting should go very well,” Mr Trump posted.

The ice between the two countries on the tariffs dispute broke when US Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick and China’s Vice-Premier He Lifeng met in Geneva on 10-11 May. Mr Trump had imposed 145 per cent import tariff on Chinese goods and brought it down to 80 per cent before the Geneva meeting.

In his joint media briefing with Mr Merz in the Oval Office on Thursday, Mr Trump maintained trade was important but the bloodbath in the Ukraine-Russia war was a more serious issue and required immediate attention.

The German Chancellor visited the White House after hosting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Berlin and assuring him of the supply of German missiles with no-range restrictions.

At the media interaction, Mr Trump did not seem to have much clarity how soon peace could be initiated in Ukraine. The US President said sometimes it is okay to let two fighting boys fight, if they liked to fight, and do not want to be pulled apart.

Mr Merz was mum most of the time in the media interaction, although he managed to say that Europe expected the US to play a key role in ending of the war.

On Friday, Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney spoke with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The two leaders discussed the upcoming G7 and NATO summits, trans-Atlantic security, and supporting Ukraine in its self-defence.

Prime Minister Carney affirmed his government’s mandate to increase defence spending and assert Canada’s sovereignty, including as part of the NATO Alliance.

Since Thursday, Ukraine has reported heavy Russian attacks on Ukraine territories. In an address, Mr Zelenskyy said on Thursday “Today, the Russians struck Kherson again – twice in one day. They destroyed the regional administration building – yet another civilian structure.”

On Friday, the Ukraine leader said “rescue and emergency operations continued all day across various regions and cities of our country. Ternopil, Lutsk, Kyiv and the region, also Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Lviv, Chernihiv, Odesa and Sumy regions. In total, 80 people have been injured – all have received assistance.”

“Unfortunately, there are fatalities. As of now, four people have been confirmed killed – in Kyiv and in Lutsk,” he said. On Saturday, Russia mounted the biggest drone attack on Ukraine’s second largest city Kharkiv. The attack was in response to Ukraine’s surprise drone attack on Russian defence airfields, as deep as 3,000 kilometers into Russian territory. The war continues.