Trump shrugs off ceasefire demand

German Chancellor Merz had insisted a ceasefire must be the result of any future meetings

US President Donald Trump has shrugged off demands from his French counterpart Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz that a ceasefire be put in place as a first stage of any lasting resolution to the Ukraine conflict.

At talks in the White House on Monday Merz told the leaders of France, Italy, the UK, Finland, the US and Ukraine as well as the head of NATO and the EU’s Ursula von der Leyen, that “to be honest, we all would like to see a ceasefire, the latest from the next meeting on,” adding he “can’t imagine” a trilateral meeting taking place “without a ceasefire”.

Macron echoed Merz’s comments saying that a ceasefire is a “necessity” and that all the leaders “support this idea.”

Trump however, rejected the suggestions. On several occasions during the talks he has stressed that he has resolved several conflicts in the eight months of his presidency and that none were preceded by a ceasefire. 

“All of us would obviously prefer an immediate ceasefire while we work on a lasting peace, and maybe something like that could happen. As of this moment it’s not happening,” he said.

In the six wars that I’ve settled I haven’t had a ceasefire. We just got into negotiations. One of those wars in the Congo was 31 years long. Another that we just got done last week between two great countries was going for 35 years.

“If we can do the ceasefire great, but if we don’t there’s many other points that were given to us, many points, great points.”

Following last week’s Alaska summit, Trump said he favored a permanent peace deal rather than a ceasefire. Moscow has long opposed short-term truces, arguing they could be exploited by Kiev to regroup and rearm.