Sir Don McKinnon: Former Foreign Minister on Donald Trump potentially joining the peace talks between Russia and Ukraine

The presidents of Russia and the US are both down as “maybes” for attending the peace talk with Ukraine, due to start later today. 

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy is personally attending the talks in Turkey and the Kremlin's sending a delegation – it remains unclear whether it'll include Vladimir Putin. 

Donald Trump says he might turn up if the circumstances are right.  

Former Foreign Minister Sir Don McKinnon told Mike Hosking Trump's involvement in the talks could be a bad thing. 

He says he'd be prepared to give too much away, which undermines what liberal democracies like New Zealand believe in. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
So Turkey becomes the center of a lot of stuff. Tonight, MARKA.
Rubia is going to be making the Syrian foreign minister,
apparently on a bigger stage. Zlensky is going to meet
perhaps Putin, perhaps not to try and maybe maybe not
sort out the war. So we're part of the coalition
of the willing, obviously, so we've got to stake in
all of this. Former Foreign Minister to Don McKinnon back
with us, Don.

Speaker 2 (00:16):
Morning, Good morning to you.

Speaker 1 (00:19):
Do you sense this goodwill here that this could go
somewhere or we wouldn't have a clue.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
I think there's a lot of goodwill on Zolensky's side.
I'm not sure there's goodwill on Putin's side. And I'm
not sure the Americans have their own president choreographed to
go in the right direction.

Speaker 1 (00:36):
Okay, so there's some sort of rumor that Trump may
show up. Do these key people need to be in
the room or can you do this without them?

Speaker 2 (00:45):
Well, you could do it without them. But this has
been very finely balanced, really, and there's a great deal
of uncertainty about what sort of a deal would trump'sy
is successful, and I think there's a fairly body of
opinion which said he would be prepared to give too
much away to Russia. That's not good because you know,
the coach and the willing countries like us, the liberal democracies,

(01:09):
we do stand up for that freedom of sovereignty, which
is Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (01:13):
Do we actually have a say? And more important, I
suppose does the EU and NATO have a say? Those
three get in the room and somehow come to an arrangement.
Who else gets to, you know, toss their ten cents
with him?

Speaker 2 (01:26):
What its arranged really, if it's agreed upon between Trump
and Putin, is probably the final deal. Is that good
for Zelenski? That is, we don't know. And this is
where the worry is. I think the European leaders have
done a tremendous amount of stepping up to the plate.
Are a long way from where they'd like to be,

(01:46):
but they certainly have influence, as does NATO, and it's
very real for that part of the world. An old
friend of mine, the former foreign Minister of Estonia, says
quite candidly, if Ukraine has lost, we are next. We
in Estonia are next. And she's quite truthful about that,
because they know what it's like to be under the

(02:08):
Russian heel.

Speaker 1 (02:09):
And talking about truthful When America says let's sort this
or we're out, do you believe them?

Speaker 2 (02:15):
Well, you can sort it out, but to whose advantage.
I'm not sure that the Trump administration is fully behind
the sovereign state of Ukraine as we all expect it
to be, and that will be tested by this meeting
in Turkey.

Speaker 1 (02:30):
All right, appreciate time very much to Don M. Kenton,
former Foreign Minister, with us this morning. For more from
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