By Rabi Raj Thapa
The US President, Donald Trump, and Russian President, Vladimir Putin’s Alaska Summit on Friday, 15, 2025, shook major NATO European countries, such as the United Kingdom, Germany, France, and Italy, to their core. Then followed another emergency spectacular meeting at the White House on August 18, 2025.
In the meeting, US President Donald Trump showed greater acumen in conducting the meeting himself. He looked determined to stop the Ukraine war, stop the killing and settle the disputes that are killing between 5,000 to 7,000 security forces and common citizens almost every week.
In the meeting at the White House, the US President depicted European Union Commission President Ursula von der Leyen as more powerful than other major European leaders, such as NATO Secretary General, heads of major countries France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom and others.
In the meeting, all heads of major European countries expressed their reservation on Donald Trump’s design for peace in Ukraine.
In that brief meeting of around 25 minutes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded security guarantees from the US and other major European countries. He spoke of prisoner exchanges and the return of abducted children by Russia.
The NATO General Secretary Mark Rutte spoke of Donald Trump breaking the deadlock with President Putin by starting a dialogue. He also demanded that Russia stop killing, destroying Ukraine’s infrastructure, and opined that security guarantees would be a big step and make a lot of difference.
The European Commission president spoke of lasting peace and stopping the killing. She interpreted Ukraine’s security guarantees as an alternative to NATO’s Article 5.
Then the German Chancellor showed some reservations on the Alaska Summit of August 15. He sought a ceasefire before beginning any serious trilateral meeting and negotiation.
Italian Prime Minister Maloney praised the bravery of the Ukrainians and the unity and support of the major European nations. She said, “We are on the side of Ukraine and we do absolutely support efforts towards peace”. She also demanded security guarantees similar to that of NATO’s Article 5 Model as a precondition for non-recurrence of war and a permanent peace.
The French President said everybody is in favor of robust and long-standing peace. In order to organize a trilateral meeting, he demanded a truce or ceasefire, stop killings as the minimum conditions for a long-standing peace in Ukraine.
UK’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke about the impact of the Ukraine war on Europe and the UK. His security guarantees also indicated the same sort of NATO Article 5-style guarantees. He opined trilateral meeting was a sensible next step.
At the end, the President of a small country, Finland, was invited to speak. The President of Finland said, “Some of the media might wonder, why is the president of Finland over there?” The reason behind this was that a small country like Finland has 800-mile-long borders with Russia, as Nepal has a long open border with India and a regulated border with China. Finland has its own historical experience of war with Russia and Nepal has a bad memory of hardship during the four economic blockades from the south.
As India and China are growing to be two big global powers shortly, they may take Nepal’s instability and border vulnerability as a security threat to their national interests. In that case Nepal can face security challenges like Syria in the Middle East and Ukraine in Europe.
Unfortunately, Nepal has lost its national security agenda to its internal political dogfights.
Therefore, Nepal has to be serious about its national security issues, come up with a pending National Security Strategy and strengthen its security agencies as a security guarantee to its national sovereignty and a reliable partner, assuring no threat to its national security concerns.
Now the time has come to wake up and take the necessary self-tailored mode of security guarantees for itself and its allies alike. Otherwise, Nepal will find nobody in case it needs any support when faced with security threats and challenges.
Login to add a comment