President Donald Trump is not just trying to end the vicious war in Ukraine.
He claims that every month of his second term, which spans the Middle East, has already ended almost one war. Africa; Central, Southeast Asia, Southeast Asia.
“I played six wars – I ended six wars,” Trump said Monday at a meeting with Ukraine’s Voldimi Zelensky and European leaders. “India-Pakistan, we’re talking about big places. You’ll see some of these wars. You’ll go to Africa and see them.”
The White House declared this month in a statement that “President Trump is the president of peace,” and the listing insisted on a diplomatic agreement between Armenia and Azerbaijan. Cambodia and Thailand. Israel and Iran. Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Egypt and Ethiopia. The Serbia, Kosovo and Abraham agreement is a normalization agreement signed during Trump’s first term between Israel and several Arab countries.
Some of this is an exaggeration of classic Trump. And the president’s team is scanning gloves looking for fires to extinguish to claim a quick victory in the Nobel Peace Prize transparent campaign.
Trump has not suddenly reinvented American foreign policy. All administrations work to halt the war and promote American interests. Most people don’t get constant victory laps. In fact, such victory often destroys quiet diplomacy.
But Trump saved his life. In some cases, he uses the president’s power in a novel way to stop a sudden conflict from escalating into a full-scale war.
However, his success raises new questions that apply to Ukraine as well. Is Trump in it for a long time or as much as he has approved as a businessman and stamped his name on them, for deals he can hype?
And will the internal organs of the US International Development Agency for U.S. International Development and Downsizing take away the tools the US needs to turn breakthroughs into a lasting peace agreement that resolves the underlying causes of war?
Trump continued to insist on Monday – as he tried to try finesse, he was more interested in the final deal, and adopted Russia’s opposition to the Ukrainian ceasefire.
Ironically, some of his “six wars” deals are closer to a ceasefire than a peace deal that ends generational conflicts forever. And in the case of Iran and Israel, Trump’s claims have become complicated after the 12-day conflict has been complicated by its involvement in a strike against Tehran’s nuclear program. Since the end of Iran’s Islamic Revolution in 1979, there have been no indications of a slow state of war involving all three countries.
Trump is also useful to forget his failed attempt to end the war between Israel and Hamas. And the global outrage over widespread hunger reporting in Gaza and the president’s solid support for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu could thwart hopes for the Nobel Prize.
His records are also trapped by the failure of his first peace effort with North Korea. National Leader Kim Jong has more nuclear weapons than before Trump offered him the pinnacle of fruitless photography.
Some of Trump’s biggest successes are behind the scenes.
“I was impressed by the fact that things that were particularly useful in India and Pakistan were quietly and diplomatically professional.
The recent victory was a joint peace declaration signed by Armenia and Azerbaijan on a long-term conflict in the Caucasus.
The agreement is engraved in a gorgeous White House ceremony, violating two former Soviet republics to recognize each other’s borders and abandon violence against the other. But before a full peace agreement, complex negotiations loom on knotted constitutional and territorial issues.
The deal is notable for two things: the way foreign states try to get what Trump wants and the imperialist streak in much of his peacebuilding. For example, rivals agreed to open a transport corridor where the US has full development rights and call it the “Trump Route for Peace and Prosperity.”
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev declared, “President Trump had done a miracle six months later.”
This is a wise deal for the US to counter the influence of Russian and Iranian rival powers in the region. But that requires constant attention from Trump. “A declaration of wishes and words is not enough,” former US ambassadors of Azerbaijan, Robert Sector and Richard Morningstar, wrote in a recent commentary on the Atlantic Council. They asked Trump to deploy officials from the State Department, the Commerce Department and other agencies.
Another of Trump’s recent victories came in Southeast Asia. He threatened to shelve trade deals with both Thailand and Cambodia last month to halt the border war that killed at least 38 people. Leveraging calls to leaders from countries was effective and may not have occurred to other presidents. But Trump wasn’t working alone. This agreement was mediated by the Association of Southeast Asian Countries. However, Cambodia Prime Minister Hun Mane knew about drills. He nominated Trump for the Nobel Prize for “extraordinary politicians.”
Pakistan took a similar step as part of a successful diplomatic attack to beat Trump after the president intervened in a border conflict in May and put him at a disadvantage against nuclear rival India. But former Trump fellow Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India, has dismissed Washington’s pivotal role claims. Other states were also involved, including Saudi Arabia, Türkiye and the UK. Trump’s claim that he ended the war is selective. The agreement is fragile and does not resolve the territorial disputes that sparked the battle in the Himalayas of Kashmir, which caused three full-scale wars.
Trump has declared “a glorious victory over the cause of peace” in a brokered deal between Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. This includes important first steps to recognize borders, abandoning war and disarming militia groups. However, no one expects the dispute to end soon, as the main Rwandan-backed M23 Rebel Group has rejected the contract. Some analysts see the initiative, mediated by Qatar, as a US attempt to secure mineral rights as part of Africa’s “great game” against China.
Trump’s claims that he brokered peace between Egypt and Ethiopia is widespread. He mentions the conflict over the latter country of Nile Dam, where Egypt’s fears reduce the flow of shares of key strategic waterways. He sought a deal over the dam, but no binding agreement was reached.
The White House attributes its claims about Serbia and Kosovo to Trump’s first term when rivals agreed to measures to normalize economically. However, 17 years after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia, they still have no diplomatic relations. And recent normalization efforts have been more involved in the EU than the Trump team.
In many ways, Trump’s claim that he ended the six wars is typical of the presidency, claiming massive victory, which often means less than they look. But if his record has real accomplishments and Trump can maintain application and patience, there is a real long-term breakthrough.
That is a good lesson for his early Ukrainian peace drive.