What do the Americans want, what is their agenda? - political consultant Taras Berezovets writes on the NW portal.
The administration of Donald Trump devotes little time to diplomatic etiquette, so the preparation for the meeting with the Ukrainian president was held at a rapid pace. Moreover - when last week it became known about it, many US senators, congressmen and representatives of the State Department did not know anything about it.
What is important in this meeting? Trump is a newcomer to international politics, however, according to representatives of the leading American think tank, he quickly enters the taste of power, begins to navigate the intricacies of the world's background. No one should be fooled by the fact that he meets in such a spontaneous regime and meetings are held with a violation of the schedule - this does not at all indicate a chaos of his foreign policy. There is the State Department, there is the National Security Council, which conducts foreign policy issues and keeps Trump informed.
In addition, foreign policy - the main area of ??activity of Vice President Mike Pens, who keeps in the shadows, says little, but works a lot. He did much to organize this visit. It was the efforts of Pensa that today's meeting in the format of drop-in (a short meeting of up to 10 minutes) was held in a full-fledged format of negotiations in the Oval Office. This was extremely important, because according to Washington diplomatic etiquette, if the US president accepts a guest in the Oval Office - the meeting and negotiations receive the highest status. That's exactly what happened today. Although until the last moment, no one could confirm in which exact format this meeting will take place.
As a result of negotiations. What do the Americans want, what is their agenda? Americans want to restart relations between Kiev and Washington. Obama's legacy should be forgotten, the page with interference of Ukrainian politicians in the American elections is turned upside down. About these negative stories they want to forget and not talk about them. In addition, Americans want to see a new political leadership. The point is that Americans are not satisfied with the quality of the Ukrainian civil service, those people who are in the government today. There must be new, professional, not corrupt people, primarily in government structures. At the same time, Americans do not call any specific names.
The fight against corruption is of little interest to the administration of Trump. This is the agenda of the State Department, where the Obama team still remains. Therefore, we can say that this is already an inertial scenario: Trump issues of fighting corruption in Ukraine are interested somewhere in the tenth turn.
What interests in the first place? Effective waste of American money. In addition, Trump is interested in meeting all the conditions. As a businessman, he wants to see that everything he agreed on is fulfilled. If this is not fulfilled - the attitude of the Americans will seriously change.
There is indeed a certain fatigue from Ukraine, it was felt. Americans say they want to see a success story in Kiev, similar to the successful reform of the Ukrainian police. Here, in Washington, they very much like to remember this story, everyone likes it very much. But now the Americans say: "Let's show the next story". This should be either the work of the anti-corruption bureau, or the General Prosecutor's Office, or the implementation of the constitutional reform, the reform of local government. Politics here are arranged in such a way that if we do not show our successes, they will consider that we do nothing.
On the positive moments of the meeting. It was possible to agree on expanding cooperation in the military-technical sphere. Trump gave an appropriate instruction to the US Secretary of Defense. There were no specifics, but since there is Muzhenko, the chief of the General Staff, one can assume that Ukraine can get the so-called light lethal weapon. This decision is being lobbied by Defense Minister Mattis and Advisor McMaster.
In the administration today there is a fairly large group of top-level officials who defends the interests of Ukraine. Mattis, McMaster, Pence are our main allies. Who does not support us? Steve Bennon - Advisor to the President. Also there is a problem with Jared Kushner - president's son-in-law. Kushner does not really support us, he is far from this issue and does not notice Ukraine. She does not interest him. If you can get the support of Kouchner - it can change the balance in Washington.