US allies seek clarity on Ukraine support at Munich Security Conference

US allies sense a change in tone from the president since his inauguration last month, said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform, a London-based research group.

“Though Trump has said a lot of things to worry a lot of people on tariffs, on trade, on Gaza and so on, he hasn't yet said anything particularly crazy from a European point of view about Ukraine or NATO. He hasn't repeated his threat to pull out of NATO. He said the Europeans should spend more [on defense] but most of us agree with him on that. He hasn't said he's going to cut off all aid for Ukraine,” Grant told VOA.

“One of the issues that will come up in Munich is to what extent the Europeans should help to keep the peace if there is a ceasefire in Ukraine. And certainly, President [Emmanuel] Macron of France, and to some degree the British, and possibly Friedrich Merz who may well be the next German chancellor, are all in favor of sending troops to keep the peace in Ukraine, if there's a peace to be kept,” Grant added.

...President Trump’s repeated suggestion that Palestinians should leave Gaza will overshadow the conference, said analyst Charles Grant.

“I don't see it happening because you can't just eliminate 2 million people and put them nowhere at all,” Grant said.

“But I think most European governments are hoping that Trump will just push this for a while, and he'll get bored of it and talk about something else – and hope he will kind of move on and forget it. But so long as he does talk about it, it's very disruptive and creates a lot of ill-feeling between European and many other governments, and the U.S.,” Grant told VOA.