Jeffrey Price: Former US Defence Department official on the fallout of Trump-Zelenskyy meeting

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said his intention in the Oval Office was for the US to "stand more firmly on our side." 

During the meeting Trump told Zelenskyy to make a deal with Russia or the US would be out. 

Former US Defence Department official Jeffrey Price joins the show to discuss the meeting that continues to be felt around the world.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
We all got to see it, the huge spectacle of
the weekend between US President Donald Trump, Vice President Jed E.
Vance and Ukraine's President Valodimyr Zelensky. I'll take you back there.
You're gambling with World War three. You're gambling with World
War three, and what you're doing is very disrespectful to
the country. This country that's back you far more than

(00:23):
a lot of people said they should have. Have you
said thank you once.

Speaker 2 (00:28):
In this entire media said h.

Speaker 1 (00:31):
Yeah, okay, it was fire. He wasn't it. And President
Trump told Zelensky to make a deal with Russia or
the US will be out. European leaders are our meeting
in London for a summer to discuss an outcome for
all of this. They're prepared to give security guarantees. Former
US Defense Department official Jeffrey Price joins me now from America.

Speaker 2 (00:48):
Hello Jeffrey, Good morning and morning everybody who's up so
early in New Zealand.

Speaker 1 (00:54):
How's America reacting to what happened? You know, are they
are they happy with their president or not? Or is
it split a next Like the rest of the.

Speaker 2 (01:00):
World, there is a bit of a split. Many Republicans
are at least publicly defending what the President and Vice
President Advance did. But a great many Americans are frankly embarrassed.
It was a disaster, no matter how you look at it.

(01:20):
And this is the kind of diplomacy that should not
be taking place on television exactly. And so I don't
think anybody comes out ahead except for the Russians.

Speaker 1 (01:28):
Well, let's talk about what actually happened to that, because
that's the other thing. The analysis of it has got
all weird too. So at the basic point of it,
President Donald Trump will not agree to a cease fire
plan if it includes a security guarantee, and Zelenski demands
a security guarantee. So if Trump won't include a security guarantee,
does that mean America is out now of both the

(01:50):
war and the peace.

Speaker 2 (01:54):
I don't think so. This is so important for the
security of Europe, for the security of the world, that
we have to come to some resolution here. And the
problem is that we're We've got the Americans, we've got
the Europeans, we've got the Ukrainians and the Russians. So
it's a complicated negotiation. The last time we had something
that's similar to me was the war in Bosnia in

(02:17):
the nineties when you had different players as well. So
Zelenski is going to want to see that any ceasefire
does not just allow repeated aggression. There needs to be
some deterrence of future Russian aggression in any ceasefire that
is likely going to involve Europeans. And the question that's

(02:38):
being discussed during the Americans and Europeans and the Ukrainians
is is what role the United States might have, say
backstopping what will be at the front a European presence
that's also being worked out right.

Speaker 1 (02:55):
So security guarantees guaranteed by Europe, but if a goal
got a bit po shaped and Putin still took them on,
that America might come back in.

Speaker 2 (03:06):
So America plays a crucial role even when we're not
at the front of a conflict, in logistics and command
and control, in intelligence, surveillance. So anytime you have a
serious conventional force right now, NATO was organized to have
America at the core. When we had the war in Bosnia.
It started out with a European force under UN command

(03:28):
that did not work. It was replaced by a NATO
lead force with a one third American component that did work.
So I think that's what people might be thinking about.
President Trump is me career. He doesn't want the United
States to be in a front role. But to me,
any force that's going to be credible and effective is

(03:49):
either going to have to be a NATO force or
something like a NATO force, even if it's a European
pillar in NATO, and.

Speaker 1 (03:57):
The Europeans are starting to talk about a European force
to run in conjunction within a NATO. NATO seems to
be completely deempowered. It's a very interesting time, and Jeffrey Price,
I thank you so much for your thoughts.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
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