This was not the right way to treat the President of Ukraine: EU Commissioner on Zelensky-Trump dispute
European Union Commissioner Andrius Kubilius has criticized the Trump administration over the heated debate between US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday. He also said that this was not the right way to treat the President of a country that is fighting for its existence. In an exclusive conversation with NDTV on Saturday, Kubilius, the EU Defense Industry and Space Commissioner, said that the 21st century will be India's century and the European Commission is keen to work fast on a free trade agreement with the country.
Regarding the Trump-Zelensky dispute, former Lithuania Prime Minister Kubilius said, "This way of welcoming the President of another country fighting for its existence was difficult to understand and completely unacceptable. Many European leaders, including European Union President Ursula von der Leyen, have given a clear response and message regarding Zelensky and Ukraine that they will not stand alone. The strategy of President Trump and his team is still not clear to us."
Everyone in the EU stands for peace in Ukraine: Kubilius
He said that the European Union started receiving strange messages during the Munich conference, when US Vice President JD Vance criticized the Union on several points.
He emphasized that everyone in the European Union stands for peace in Ukraine. He also said, "The people of Ukraine really deserve peace and they are people who want peace, but a just peace can only be achieved through the formula of peace through strength. That formula was repeated by the Americans so far. This means that we have to give the Ukrainians military, financial and similar strength to show Vladimir Putin that he will not be able to achieve anything in Ukraine. Putin started the war, he started the aggression."
Our support from America was big: Kubilius
Kubilius said that America has a "misconception" that its support to Ukraine is as much as the European Union. He said, "We are supporting and the Americans were supporting Ukraine a lot... but the general, military and financial support of the Union was about 30 percent bigger than the American support. Our support was $130 billion and the American support was $100 billion, not $500 or whatever we sometimes hear from President Trump." He said the military aid provided by the US and the EU was less than 0.1% of GDP each year and thus could be increased.
... so China could behave aggressively: Kubilius
He also warned that not supporting Ukraine would send a signal to China that it could also behave aggressively.
"And we need to increase it because Ukraine is protecting all of us. It is certainly protecting us Europeans and in some ways protecting the US as well. Because if the West fails in Ukraine and Russia wins with its aggressive policies, we can see very clearly what the international consequences will be. I am sure, for example, China is watching what is happening in Ukraine and if China concludes that the West is politically weak and cannot tolerate Russian aggression, it will have to do it," he said.
"If it is unable to stop it, it may behave aggressively towards Taiwan."
Europe faces big threats from Russia: Kubilius
Kubilius was asked how India and the European Union can cooperate and ensure that the international rules-based order remains. On this, he said that Europe is facing big threats from Russia and European intelligence agencies have said that Russia can increase its aggression towards the member countries of the European Union or NATO. He told that India is facing threats in the Indo-Pacific region itself.
He said, *"In my view, countries that are based on the same principles of democracy, the rule of law and (support for one) sovereignty and an international order based on clear principles of non-aggression should unite and countries should generally be more active in not allowing authoritarian countries to test any kind of aggression or any kind of authoritarian aggressive axis.
In particular, you know when we are concerned about Russian behavior we look somewhere between *Russia, Iran, North Korea, and China."
21st century will be India's century: Kubilius
Kubilius said this is the first visit to India by the entire EU College of Commissioners, which shows how important it considers its strategic relationship with India.
"I have been repeating that the 21st century will be first of all the space century and India's century... because of Indian development, importance, and the geopolitical and economic roles that India is playing and will play until the end of the century," he said. The European Union and India live by the same values of democracy, human rights... and this makes our cooperation, our strategic partnership, very important.
Also responded on space and defense cooperation
He emphasized that he was "very impressed" by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's ambitious space program. He also said that they had discussed India's plans to land a crew on the moon by 2040, build a space station, and the recently successful docking experiment.
He said, *"We can expect that there will be some kind of manufacturing in space. We can expect energy production in space, and all that will open up new possibilities for cooperation, for joint projects (between the EU and India)... If you are able to show that in space you are able to do something significant then it means you are a really *good and strong partner."
He also stressed that given Russia's "aggression", India could be a good option to help fill the gaps in the EU's defense capabilities.
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