Breaking down the heated exchange between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, US President Donald Trump and Vice-President JD Vance at the White House.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon reacted to Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s “robust exchange” in a White House meeting saying, “New Zealand remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine.”
And tonight, the Ukraine leader has thanked Luxon for his support via a social media post.
The US President and the Ukrainian President had a shouting match in the Oval Office on Friday,
“You’re either going to make a deal or we’re out,” Trump told Zelenskyy. The meeting was meant to ease tensions over the sudden US outreach to Russia, but it now left them inflamed, Agence France-Presse reported.
“You’re gambling with the lives of millions of people. You’re gambling with World War Three, and what you’re doing is very disrespectful to this country,” Trump said.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon reacted to US President Donald Trump's 'robust' meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying it was best the two countries worked together.
Luxon reacted saying, “We all want the US and Ukraine working together towards the shared objective of a just and lasting peace for Ukraine”.
He said the “best” way to achieve peace would be Russia ending its “three-year long illegal and immoral war of aggression“.
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) March 1, 2025
“New Zealand remains steadfast in its support for Ukraine as it defends itself in a war that Russia started. It’s mounting the defence of a proud, democratic, sovereign nation, but also the defence of international law.”
Trump alarmed other US allies and upended Washington’s longstanding Ukraine policy two weeks ago when he spoke to Russian President Vladimir Putin and started talks on ending the three-year-old war without Kyiv’s involvement, Agence France-Presse reported.
Luxon has said his first conversation with Trump after his election was “very positive, very warm” and Trump had an “obvious” respect for New Zealand during their phone call.
The Prime Minister said it was a “very positive, very warm, good connection” in which Trump spoke highly of New Zealand and Luxon talked about his own time living in the US and his business background prior to entering politics.
Luxon said Trump had visited New Zealand in the past “and he knows it, he just has respect for the country. That was quite obvious in his remarks.”
Luxon said it was not a detailed conversation and did not get into Trump’s policies for the war in Ukraine: “[It was] just about the challenges around the Middle East and Ukraine, and acknowledging they’re pretty tough conflicts and there are no obvious or easy answers to those.”
New Zealand is a partner of the Five Eyes intelligence sharing grouping that includes the US.
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