Morning Briefing: Provoziert Trump Europa als nächstes mit Putin?
Beim G20-Finanzministertreffen trifft die alte Welt auf Trumps Machtshow – und muss sich mit dem Finanzier des Ukrainekriegs auseinandersetzen. Womöglich nicht der letzte Schlag.
Good morning, dear readers, imagine arriving at an international conference and suddenly finding yourself seated with a war mongerer at the table. That's what Lars Klingbeil experienced yesterday. Against protocol, the G20 presidency invited Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanow to the financial ministers' meeting in Asheville, North Carolina.
Western politicians avoid the man, widely regarded as the financier of the war against Ukraine. The US had already put him on their sanctions list, a decision made before Donald Trump's second term began, which neither he nor Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent cared much about. As a result, in Asheville, we have a clash between the old, multilateral world and Trump's new world of power politicians.
Klingbeil finds all of this horrifying: the German Finance Minister is actually a fan of the US and one of the few government members with a credible relationship to his counterpart in the Trump administration. At the same time, he cannot simply accept the spectacle of Asheville. That's why he sent a clear message: there needs to be "more own strength, more partnerships".
When the US did not want to cooperate more closely with Europe, Europe should look for new allies. In the end, the Europeans managed to achieve something: Siluanow did not appear in the summit photo.
Written by urgent.news from Handelsblatt's reporting — not their text. Machine-written — may contain errors; check the original before relying on it.
