00:00Ambassador Puster, thank you so much for joining us. What a day to have you with us here on Europe
00:04Today. There's a lot to digest. But first, let's just start perhaps with President Trump's attempts
00:09to end the war in Ukraine. Is President Trump trying to push President Zelensky into signing
00:14a deal before Christmas? You know, I'm not involved in the negotiations on Ukraine and I'm
00:20reluctant to comment. We've got Ambassador Witkoff, we've got Secretary Rubio,
00:25Jared Kushner, people that are involved in anything I might say, you know, since I'm not
00:30involved, might damage those negotiations. We all want to see peace. But the fact that you're based
00:35in Brussels, you do understand how the Europeans work. So why do you think the Russians are getting
00:39such soft treatment? Again, any comments I made in that respect could impact the negotiations.
00:45And it would be, it just, it just, look, we all want peace in Ukraine. We all want the killing to
00:50stop. And I don't want to make a comment that might damage the negotiations that could lead to
00:55that peace. And since I'm not involved, it would be easy for me to make a mistake and say the wrong
00:59thing. Indeed, especially on live TV. You don't want to make that mistake. But perhaps you could
01:03talk to us about how the US administration feel about the frozen Russian assets. Is the US on board
01:09with this? Again, the United States hasn't taken a position on that. That's a, that's a European
01:13event, a European solution. I'm, I, and the European, I'm not sure that all the Europeans
01:20are granted. I know how the Belgians feel. I know how the rest of Europe feels. So that's not
01:24something, again, that's not something we're going to get into the middle of. That's a European
01:28decision. But there are reports that the US administration have been calling bilaterally
01:32EU capitals telling them not to sign up to this deal. Yeah, I've, I've heard those reports. I don't
01:37know anybody who's done that. And I haven't spoken to anybody at the EU who's gotten that kind
01:41of contact. So again, that's not, this is just not, I'm, I'm happy to talk to you about the economy
01:46or any areas you want to talk about or President Trump's comments. But while there's negotiations
01:50going on to end this horrific, this horrific war in, in Ukraine, it just would be irresponsible of
01:57me to comment because I'm just not involved in those negotiations. You're not involved, but please,
02:02I'm sure our listeners would love you to comment on President Trump's plans and the various comments
02:07we've heard across the last couple of days on the national security strategy. Is this
02:11the campaign, do you think, Ambassador, to dismantle the European Union?
02:14Well, you know, it's interesting that the coverage of the national security strategy,
02:19when I read it, I thought, my, this thing's going to be terrible. I went and read it and
02:23it's really not that bad. The section on Europe is titled A Proposal for European Greatness. It's
02:29not called, we don't like Europe, we want Europe to go away. And if you read down a little bit,
02:35it says that Europe is, I think I'm going to get the quote right, Europe is strategically and
02:41culturally vital to the United States. You read a little further, it says our transatlantic trade
02:48relationship, which is the largest trade relationship in the world, is a pillar of the
02:54global economy and of American prosperity. So I don't, there, I don't, I did not read it at all
03:00as an attempt to dissolve the European Union. But does it suggest going back to nation states?
03:04Well, I think the, the thrust of it is that you do have 27 sovereign states. So it's not going back
03:12to sovereign states. You have 27 sovereign states. The question is how much of their sovereignty did
03:17they give up to be part of an economic union? Did they give up the sovereignty to determine who
03:22comes into or out of their countries? Did they give up the sovereignty on cultural issues that might
03:28be different in Eastern Europe than they are in Western Europe? So when it says Europe's weak
03:32and decaying, who's weak? Who is President Trump referring to? Well, if you, if you look at the
03:36European Union overall, you'll see the GDP, the nominal GDP, and it was, was ahead of the United
03:43States, the European Union in 2011. So that's 14 years ago. For me, that doesn't seem so long ago.
03:49That's recent memory. Today, if you include the United Kingdom, it's about 20% below that the IMF is
03:56projecting for this year. If you take the United Kingdom out, it's almost a third below that this
04:00is a huge drop. And even more impressively, I think for citizens in Europe, for the people of
04:06Europe, GDP per capita, in other words, economic growth in a country per person, GDP per capita in
04:12Germany, the industrial giant of Europe is now below that of the state of West Virginia in the
04:20United, the 49th worst state. I mean, Europeans know that as well. I mean, they don't really need this
04:23document to state it, but just this idea of what is Europe. Well, but you asked, what's the weakness?
04:28And then if you look at Spain, Italy, France, the French economy, and you look at the EU overall,
04:34and include the UK, I'll include the UK in this too, just for fairness, they're below the state
04:39of Mississippi, which is the 50th lowest GDP per capita US state. So when you ask, where's the
04:43weakness? Well, this is an economic weakness. So it's not pointing at a particular, particular
04:48person. And just this idea of Europe staying Europe, what exactly does that mean? Does that mean a
04:52white Christian Europe? No, I think it means, and I would say this for the United States too,
04:58when people are immigrating into the United States, if you're not going to contribute
05:04economically, if you don't want to become a part of the society, if in fact you reject the basic
05:11tenets of that society, it's probably people we don't want. Those are the kind of people that come
05:16in and you see an increase in the crime rate. You see a decrease in the kind of cultural values
05:21people have. I think there are even European cities where the police now are afraid to go in or don't
05:25go into certain sections. They're governed by different legal standards. I think what he's
05:29saying is that we don't want to see Europe lose its identity as Europe, because we're going to have
05:36to leave it there. But do come back to us please again, stay here on Europe Today.
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