Jeffrey Price: Former US Defence Department official ahead of France's emergency summit on the Russia-Ukraine war

Trump's advisers are on their way to Saudi Arabia to begin negotiations with Russia to end the war with Ukraine - but Ukraine appears to have been left out of the discussion. 

European leaders are determined to not get left behind, with an emergency summit set to take place in France between European and NATO leaders.

Jeffrey Price, a former US Defence Department official, doubts a deal will be reached without Ukraine taking part in discussions.

"There's going to have to be a conversation between the Americans and the Europeans about what kind of a force is going to be available to be able to guarantee any solution, if there is one."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Bryan Bridge after four News Talk ce B.

Speaker 2 (00:03):
Trump's advisors are on the way to Saudi Arabia as
we speak to begin negotiations with Russia to end the
war in Ukraine.

Speaker 1 (00:10):
But Ukraine itself is being left out. European leaders are
mythed no invite for them either. They're having a crisis
summit in Paris in a few hours instead. Jeffrey Price
is a former Special Council for International Affairs in the
US Department of Defense. He has been part of negotiations
with Russia and he's with me. Good afternoon, Good afternoon,

(00:32):
thanks for being with me. Do you not out a
deal without Ukraine even being in the room.

Speaker 3 (00:39):
I doubt that they will get to a deal without
Ukraine being part of it. And this is very early days.
I mean normally, when I was involved in a negotiation
like this, we would get everybody together at the White House,
agree of strategy and a message, and then talk to
the allies and then go and negotiate with the Russians.

(01:00):
But a lot of it seems to be coming out
sort of a piecemeal here, and the Ukrainians and the
Russians are very far apart right now, so it seems
to me that unless we get more pressure on Russia,
it's going to be hard to get to something which
is acceptable to both sides.

Speaker 1 (01:21):
America is supplying a huge amount of money and weapons, though.

Speaker 2 (01:24):
They have quite a bit of influence, presumably can they
not just you know, I mean they hold all the
clouds down there.

Speaker 3 (01:32):
Well, the United States has been providing the bulk of
the military assistance, the Europeans actually the bulk of the
economic assistance, so it's been sort of a balance there.
But President Trump has said he wants to end the
war really quickly, so that gives him, yes, quite quite
a bit of influence. But the problem is that putin.

(01:53):
You know, when you give putin a gift, it's not
like Valentine's Day and you expect something in return. He
thinks it's Christmas and just wants more concessions. So I
think we need to be in a position where we
can put incentives on the table where he fears that
there's more military assistance coming, maybe more sanctions, And that's
what we're going to have to see in Saudi Arabia

(02:15):
in the next few weeks.

Speaker 2 (02:16):
You've dealt with obviously, you've said you've dealt with the
Russians before that, agreed to deals before and then they
have wofd them back plenty of times.

Speaker 1 (02:24):
If it works, how long will it last.

Speaker 3 (02:28):
So it seems to me that negotiating from a position
and strength is important one to get a deal, but
two to keep a deal. To your point, because if
Russia has its way and Ukraine is in a very
weak position, that just makes it more likely that the
world will start again. So any lasting deal is going

(02:49):
to have to have very substantial security guarantees. It's going
to have to leave Ukraine in a military position where
it can deter more aggression. And that's what's being talked
about not just between the Americans and the Russians right now,
but also among the Europeans themselves. And there's going to
have to be a conversation between the Americans and the

(03:12):
Europeans about what kind of a force is gonna is
going to be available to guarantee any solution, if there
is one, because at the I think it's stick to
get one soon.

Speaker 2 (03:22):
At the moment the White House is saying nothing. America
won't help with that. You know, NATO won't be helping
with that. So do you think they'll have to actually
to make this work, to make this long lasting, they're
going to have to get involved.

Speaker 3 (03:37):
It seems to me that there's going to have to
be a NATO element to a credible force. That's my opinion.
I mean, in the war in Bosnia, the last time
we had a major war in Europe, you saw a
fairly ineffective European peacekeeping force led by the UN that
wasn't able to keep the peace. It was replaced by

(03:58):
a very effective name lead force, which in that case
did have about a one third American participation. That's a
model of how to make a military force that works.
Now Trump has said that we won't be sort of
directly involved, but it seems to me that any European
force that's going to have credibility, it would be best

(04:19):
if it was organized on a need be model.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
Fascinating stuff. Jeffrey, thank you very much for your input.
Jeffrey Price, former Special Council for International Affairs in the
US Department of Defense. He's been there at the table
with the Russians beforce. He knows a thing or two
about what he's talking about.

Speaker 1 (04:35):
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