 "'It's on the table': US backtracks Hegseth's denial of Nato membership, security guarantees to Ukraine")
A day after US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth rattled Europe by saying that the Nato membership and US security guarantees were off the table for Ukraine , US officials have backtracked those remarks.
Multiple senior US officials, including Vice President JD Vance, have said that everything is on the table. Hegseth also backtracked his comment and said until President Donald Trump makes the final call on the US position, everything —including Nato membership— is on the table.
“I want to be clear about something as it pertains to Nato membership not being a realistic outcome for negotiations. That’s something that was stated as part of my remarks here as part of a coordination with how we’re executing these ongoing negotiations, which are led by President Trump. All of that said, these negotiations are led by President Trump. Everything is on the table,” said Hegseth on Thursday, according to CBS News.
Similarly, John Coale, Trump’s deputy Ukraine envoy, said that “right now, that is still on the table” when asked whether the United States had ruled out Ukraine’s Nato membership, according to Reuters.
Coale also appeared to soften Hegseth’s criticism of Europe the previous day. He said that Europeans are “more than willing to participate” in the peace process even though there are questions about their involvement’s extent. He added that you “have to have the Europeans involved” in the peace process.
All economic, military tools on the table, says Vance
In line with Hegseth’s revised comments and Coale’s clarification, Vice President Vance said that all economic and military options, including deploying US soldiers in Ukraine if needed, are on the table.
In an interview with Wall Street Journal, Vance said that sending US troops to Ukraine if Russian leader Vladimir Putin failed to negotiate in good faith remained “on the table”.
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More Shorts“There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the United States could use against Putin, said Vance.
As for the post-war Ukraine, Vance said, “There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence.”
In an interview with The Wall Street Journal hours after President Trump said he would start negotiating with Putin to end the war in Ukraine, Vance said: “I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people.”
Vance said that Trump is not going to enter talks “with blinders on”. Instead, he said that Trump is going to say that “everything is on the table, let’s make a deal”.
As for the concessions that may be sought, Vance said, “President Trump could say, look, we don’t want this thing, we might not like this thing, but we’re willing to put it back on the table if the Russians aren’t being good negotiating partners, or there are things that are very important to Ukrainians that we might want to take off the table.”
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