00:00So the Europeans are already bankrolling the Ukrainian government. They are buying U.S. weapons through a NATO facility and giving them to Ukraine. How much are they prepared to keep supporting Ukraine?
00:14Well, I think that, look, you can see the discussions going on about how can you unlock some of the frozen assets? How can you unlock things which are held within Belgium? How much can other European countries come together to give an indemnity to the Belgian government if court action is taken by Russia?
00:32It's a very complicated situation we're in, and what this requires is a real step up of European solidarity. As you've been saying, there's been found a way to use money to buy material, which can then be deployed, and that's been really central to bridging the gap that Ukraine has found with a switch of support.
00:52They have strong support from President Biden, much more tepid support from President Trump. And really, it's a growing up process we're going through. Europe is seeing, acted out in Ukraine, the fact that the U.S. is no longer a dependable, reliable ally in the way it's been throughout the post-war period, that America is choosing to go its own way.
01:14Europe has to go its own way. Europe has to go its own way. Europe has to be able to stand on its own, and that means Europe, outside the European Union, bigger than that, Europe plus Great Britain, Europe, the growth of NATO with the countries being neutral, becoming members of NATO, that European collective self-defense is going to be driven by the Germans and driven by the French and by the British.
01:40And it's those things, the core relationship of the three countries and the Ukrainian president, that's going to be at the core of it. So what's being done to support Zelenskyy, President Zelenskyy, is actually, importantly, going to be, I think, the bones of a new European defensive security arrangement.
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