The president-elect, Donald Trump, has described his administration as being the one that will bring an end to the Russia-Ukraine war, thus eliciting questions over the war that has resulted in huge casualties. He further promised his people peace for West Asia.
"We're going to work on the Middle East, and we're going to work very hard on Russia and Ukraine. It's got to stop," Trump said at a gala for the America First Policy Institute at his Mar-a-Lago estate on Thursday. This marked his first major speech and public appearance since his electoral victory on November 5.
Trump added, "Russia and Ukraine's got to stop. I saw a report today. Thousands of people over the last three days were killed. Thousands and thousands of people were killed. They happened to be soldiers, but whether they're soldiers or they're people sitting in towns, we're going to work it."
No doubt there is nothing particularly new in the President-elect's emphasis on ending the war and on doing away with what he perceives to be a siphon of US resources, not least military aid to Ukraine.
To that end, Lisa Curtis, deputy assistant to Trump and national security council senior director for South and Central Asia from 2017 to 2021, said the war over Ukraine must end in a way that does not embolden other nations to invade their neighbors illegitimately. "President-elect Trump has in the past talked more favorably about (Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin than most US presidents. He has also talked about trying to end the war between Russia and Ukraine. We haven't seen yet how he's going to do that," Curtis said.
Curtis, who is currently the Senior Fellow and Director of the Indo-Pacific Security Programme at the Center for a New American Security, added, "I would just simply say that it needs to be done in a way that Russia faces some consequences for its actions. It needs to be done in a way that doesn't encourage other US adversaries to try to illegally invade their neighbor's territory."
At the Mar-a-Lago event, Trump also named a number of his top advisors, including Tesla owner Elon Musk and Indian-American entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, to lead the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in his second term. He also championed Hindu-American Tulsi Gabbard, whom he has reportedly chosen as Director of National Intelligence.
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