Europe Today: US envoys meet Putin as Europe pushes to join Ukraine talks

Name: Europe Today: US envoys meet Putin as Europe pushes to join Ukraine talks
Uploaded: 2026-11-13T08:01:41+00:00
Duration: 19 min 45 s
Channel: euronews (in English)

00:14Good morning, it's finally Friday, November 13th, you're watching Euronews and this is

00:21Europe today. Our top stories. Speed restrictions on Starship, the military version of the Starlink

00:30satellite service SpaceX are back, disrupting Ukraine's ability to intercept Russian drones.

00:36Restrictions have affected Ukrainian military operations across the entire front line and

00:41Russian occupied territories for several days, Ukrainian President Zelensky said. Neither

00:46Washington nor SpaceX CEO Elon Musk have publicly accepted responsibility for imposing the

00:51restrictions last month. Jensen Wang has resigned as chief executive of NVIDIA following reports that

00:59he had a relationship with a suspected Chinese agent. The company's board announced yesterday

01:03that Wang, who co-founded the firm in 1993, had stepped down as president, chief executive and

01:10board member. Earlier, the New York Times had reported a second affair with a married healthcare

01:15executive who reported to him. That may have broken the company's code of conduct.

01:21And France has signaled it may support Pablo Hernandez de Kos to succeed Cristina Lagarde as

01:27European Central Bank president next year, the Financial Times reported. This could cement a

01:33consensus behind the Spanish economist who is backed by his home country. It would potentially facilitate

01:39a deal among EU leaders, which includes two other key positions on the ECB's executive board.

01:44ECB nominations will be discussed among EU leaders informally in Dublin today.

01:50Welcome to the program. I'm Stefan Grobe.

01:53U.S. Envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner have met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow,

01:58seeking his blessing for European representatives to join negotiations on ending Russia's war against

02:05Ukraine. While Washington has signaled progress towards a broader negotiating format,

02:10Putin has reiterated Moscow's hardline demands on territory and security guarantees, rejecting proposals

02:17for demilitarized zones and the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine. To make sense of it all,

02:23Sasha Vakulina joins me now, our Ukraine correspondent. Good morning, Sasha.

02:28So one of the main objectives of Witkoff and Kushner's meeting with Putin was to secure approval,

02:34Putin's approval for European representatives to join the peace process, the peace negotiations.

02:42Did they receive his blessing?

02:44Isn't it interesting, Stefan, how the negotiations have changed and the focus shifted into what we're

02:51hearing now is about the American negotiators trying to convince Putin to allow the Europeans at the

02:58table. Not that much conversation is there about a ceasefire, specifically civilian energy infrastructure,

03:04ceasefire or any sort of an end to Moscow's war against Ukraine. And yet. Now, according to

03:09Witkoff, they did manage to convince Putin to allow the Europeans at the negotiating table. But if you

03:15listen to the statements coming from the Kremlin officials, this is not the case. They're still very

03:20hard no on that. They don't want to have the Europeans and they haven't changed their stance.

03:24It is also interesting how Jared Kushner, the US envoy, was trying to convince Russia's president to

03:31allow the Europeans at the table. Let's take a listen to that.

03:36We've seen a big change with the Europeans and we think there's a very strong momentum and desire

03:42to engage together. And we're very confident that if we move to a multilateral format,

03:47that will continue to make progress to resolve the issues. And we believe that will help us end the war.

03:55So having a European representative at the table, fine. But the question is, who should that person be?

04:01But the issue here is that this is not even something that the Europeans can agree upon. Would that be

04:06Antonio Kostya? Would that be Kaya Kalas? Would that be the head of one of the EU member states or

04:12non-EU

04:12member states? There is no consensus or agreement about that. And that is, of course, something that causes lots of

04:18criticism and extra criticism in Moscow. And I'm going to give you something that Dmitry Peskov,

04:23the Kremlin spokesperson, said yesterday about this process, which is honestly becoming a little

04:28embarrassing. Now, he said, quote, the Europeans squabble like spiders in a jar, unquote, when it comes to who

04:35can represent Europe. Yikes. Sasha Bakulina, thank you very much for this. And now let's go straight over to

04:43Dublin, where President Zelensky held late night talks with the US invoice Kushner and Witkoff in a

04:49military base outside Dublin. Our NATO correspondent, Shona Murray, was at the hastily arranged meeting.

04:55Good morning, Shona. So you saw all of these characters. What can you tell us?

05:02Oh, good morning, Chef. And I did say to you yesterday that the meeting of the European political

05:06community would be one like no other. And I wasn't wrong. Now, we did know that Steve Witkoff and

05:12Jared Kushner were coming to Dublin to meet and debrief Zelensky straight from Moscow. But all throughout

05:17the day yesterday, there was concern that it might be postponed or wouldn't go ahead at all because the

05:22flight kept on getting delayed. At about seven o'clock, though, last night, a handful of journalists

05:27were told they'd be arriving just after 8.30 local time, as he said, in a military airbase about an

05:32hour

05:33from Dublin. A few of us managed to get down there. Kushner and Witkoff arrived, went into this tiny

05:40little room. Moments later, President Zelensky arrived with his motorcade onto the airbase. They went in and spoke

05:46for about 90 minutes or so and gave a statement afterwards confirming that certainly they did speak to

05:52Vladimir Putin about Europe having an equal, more or less, place at the table. They didn't confirm this is going

05:58to happen, but certainly that's what part of the conversation and the debrief was. Now, the other point is that

06:03throughout the day yesterday, there was a real concern amongst EU leaders and European leaders

06:07that part of Vladimir Putin's process was that he wants to overhaul, once again, European security

06:13architecture, including maybe prevent more members joining NATO. And at the end of this meeting, late

06:20last night, around 10 o'clock, I managed to catch Vladimir Zelensky, President Zelensky, as he was on his way

06:25to his airplane. And I asked him whether that's what they heard, that's what he heard from Witkoff and Jared

06:31Kushner

06:32about Putin's demands.

06:34A lot of depends on when and how the war will end in Ukraine. When and how. And these will

06:44have influence

06:45on all other steps. And all these steps will be after the ending of the war, after security guarantees

06:52for Ukraine. Security guarantees of Ukraine, for Ukraine, sorry, for Ukraine, it's already part of

06:59security guarantees of Europe, because Ukraine already is a defending line of Europe. Ukraine is

07:06already the capabilities, strong capabilities for Europe. We are the part of Europe and we are the part

07:12of security architecture already. So if we are in NATO, that's what I said to Jared and Steve, if we

07:19will be in

07:20NATO, this is one architecture. Of course, changes because new, strong country with a strong army

07:27will be in NATO. Everybody is happy, by the way, in Europe, we're talking about it today. Everybody is

07:33very happy if we will be in NATO. But if not, it's another infrastructure.

07:37Are you more optimistic right now than you were 24 hours ago? Are you more optimistic that Putin or anybody

07:43wants to make an end to this war? I have to be realistic each day until we will not prevail.

07:51But I will be

07:52very optimistic when the war will end. And Shona, leaders from the 27 EU member states will gather in

08:01Dublin today. What are they expected to make of all this? Indeed, Stefan, because as we talked about,

08:10that meeting last night was very late. So they'll be digesting what they might have heard, particularly

08:15the national security advisors will be talking to EU leaders. And as we heard from President Zelensky

08:21there, when I asked him, was he a bit more optimistic than he was 24 hours previous? He said he's

08:25realistic. And of course, nobody was expecting miracles. But again, the concern that Antononi Akoshta,

08:31President of the European Council and Zelensky have, which is that Putin once again wants to have a say

08:37in Europe security, that is going to hang over this meeting today. In addition to that, there'll be a

08:42very difficult conversation about the EU seven year budget because Friedrich Mertz, the German

08:46chancellor, is insisting that all 27 member states contribute to the funding of Ukraine for the next

08:52few years. Do you remember last December when there was a discussion about funding for Ukraine, three

08:56countries, Slovakia, Czechia and Hungary refused to pay in. Mertz said everybody needs to put something

09:01towards it. And then again, of course, I'm sure we'll be hearing a lot more about who will speak for

09:05Europe. Can European leaders coalesce around one candidate? Stefan?

09:10Sjöna, Marie in Dublin, thank you very much for your reporting. Now, Europe's economy is facing a

09:17dangerous combination of challenges, sluggish growth, mounting public debt and rising borrowing costs.

09:23A sovereign bond yields put pressure on government finances. Europe's ability to invest in its future

09:29is increasingly in question. Meanwhile, deep rooted structural weaknesses from poor productivity to a

09:36lack of competitiveness continue to hold the continent back. What needs to change to get Europe

09:42back on track? Let's put this question to Matteo Sjörek, head of the IMF's European department,

09:48who joins me now in the studio. Good morning and great to have you here.

09:51Good morning.

09:52So, what is Europe's economic perspective and what should we be worried about?

09:58Let's start with good news. First of all, Europe is coping with the latest stress,

10:04that is the war in the Middle East and the spike in energy prices, rather well. In fact,

10:11growth has been higher than we feared it would have been. And that is good news. Inflation is higher,

10:20but it's not in a runaway path. It's well contained, given the scale of the shock to the energy.

10:28The bad news is that the potential growth, the long-term growth outlook remains rather poor. You're

10:36talking about 1% expansion that is normal, and that normal is worrying. And Europe needs,

10:46and European countries, need to work on increasing this potential to increase prosperity of its

10:53citizens, to make it easier for the governments to provide public services. And that requires reforms.

11:01In several countries, sovereign bond yields have come under pressure. Is this a warning from the markets?

11:10Indeed, governments in Europe and across the world, they pay more to service the debt. And this increase

11:17is, to some extent, it's global. It's linked with higher prices, higher interest rates with central

11:23banks in the world. But there is a local perspective and countries in Europe that have higher public

11:31debt, that have more political instability, that have uncertain fiscal prospects, they pay more. And

11:39that is a powerful reminder that we cannot run very large budget deficits forever, and that public debt

11:45needs to be serviced. And the costs of servicing this debt can crowd out other public spending.

11:51This brings me to France. Could France become the next weak link in the Eurozone, potentially threatening

11:59financial stability across the monetary union? I mean, it's well within France's ability to

12:06stabilize and bring down bond yields and the costs of servicing public debt. But that requires quick

12:16adoption of the 2027 budget, it requires putting public debt at a sustainable path. And the elections

12:25next year, that brings an ability for France to set the new path in this respect and stabilize the

12:32situation. So far, it's still an orderly, yes, the yields are higher, but the markets are functioning normally.

12:41Are you worried about the growing political instability in Europe? I mean, looking at France, you mentioned

12:47the elections, looking at Spain, where we have elections, looking at Germany?

12:52I mean, in Europe, we always have elections. So that says that there's nothing to there's nothing

12:56But maybe not that consequential.

12:57There's nothing to worry about. Whatever. I mean, okay, the IMF is never commenting on the on the elections

13:04themselves. But we do comment on policies. And that that is rather clear what needs to be done.

13:09What needs to be done is to, to stabilize public debt, and, and make sure that that growth accelerates.

13:18And that that is, and these growth enhancing reforms will make also the political tensions within

13:24countries much less. When, when wages grow, when, when prosperity grows, then the the the political

13:34pressures also fall. There's no shortage in Europe of economic diagnosis. You know, think about the

13:42Draghi report years ago, why is it so painfully slow to implement the recommendations? I mean,

13:49growth enhancing reforms, the ones that influence the way firms do business, the way we pay taxes,

13:57they first of all, they always take time. And they are sometimes less flashy than the the big

14:02announcement on, on new spending measure, for example. So it has to be said that a lot is being

14:09implemented across European countries, and also in in Brussels. So, so I would, I would say give it

14:18time. Yeah, the the thing is that the world is not standing still. The world is changing the economic

14:23structure of of European economy needs to change more quickly. And European firms indeed lack, lack

14:30flexibility and scale. And for that, we that there is more needs to be done. Coordination is always

14:36difficult. But I'm hopeful that that the improvement will happen and Europe will be more prosperous.

14:43All right. Mateusz Szurek, thank you so much, head of the IMF's European department. Thank you for your

14:49time today. Now, Nvidia is at the center of the global artificial intelligence revolution. But the

14:55American chip giant is now facing an extraordinary crisis, following the shock resignation of its CEO,

15:02Jensen Huang, amid allegations of an espionage scandal. The implications could go far beyond one company's

15:09leadership, raising serious questions about corporate security, China's intelligence ambitions,

15:14and America's technological supremacy. So also to answer all these questions, I'm now joined by

15:20Andrea Renda, head of research at the Center for European Policy Studies here in Brussels. Good morning.

15:26Always great to have you on. Good morning. So let's go right to it. Jensen Huang's resignation,

15:33certainly the end of an era. Could this become a major crisis for the entire global AI industry?

15:41The answer is yes, because Jensen Huang is not just basically the tech leader of the past few years,

15:50the person that has led the company that was doing GPUs for video games into becoming the backbone of the

15:58modern AI revolution. But he is also a diplomat, a tech diplomat for the United States around the world,

16:04who's been striking deals, who's been sitting with presidents everywhere. So there is a soft power in

16:08Jensen Huang, which is also driving the whole AI industry. And his policy of buying shares or facilitating

16:16the rise of other companies around its ecosystem has really created something that sustains itself,

16:22also because Jensen Huang's has been really somehow the master of puppets of everyone.

16:27So now that you mentioned that, how much damage could this scandal do to the confidence to the global

16:34AI community, particularly investors and governments? I think it's early days. The scandal could remain

16:41self-contained to the position of Jensen Huang. Nvidia, of course, is a fantastic company. It's a very solid

16:47company. It can continue. It will continue producing its chips. But there is a value to a CEO, to a

16:54very

16:54charismatic CEO of a company, which is enormous. We've seen that with Sam Altman, with others. I mean,

16:59the markets have been valuing enormously these figures. So with the loss of confidence and also

17:05the loss of strategic positioning, Nvidia is considered to be structurally important and strategic for the

17:12whole of the United States. You know, the whole AI industry might lose its trailblazer and its leader.

17:18And this might mean everyone will now look for alternatives. And this might lead to a slowdown in

17:24the whole industry.

17:25Is China's intelligence apparatus now playing a much more sophisticated

17:31game here, not only targeting technology, but also the people who control it?

17:36I think China has been very sophisticated in building its own AI industry. It uses everything.

17:40I'm not sure it uses spies as well. I think there is much more to this story that we will

17:45discover

17:46in the coming days. There will be an investigation and so on. So it's early days. It's not necessarily

17:50about Chinese spying. It's about selling chips to China and dodging export controls. So there are

17:57two sides to this story. We will discover whether it's actually China orchestrating all this, or it's

18:02actually a businessman with the sort of tacit consent of the US administration managing to do

18:08business in a very successful way across the world.

18:11Interesting. And what should Europe take away of all this?

18:15Well, I've been critical in the past of the excess dependency on one supplier in Europe's factories

18:20and future gigafactories had featured. I think we should diversify. We should make sure that we don't

18:26depend on one single supplier. And also, we should make sure that gradually we build our own internal

18:31capacity to produce chips or source chips from trusted partners. Now, this is not going to change

18:37for the time being. Nvidia chips are the leading ones in the market. And if we want to build our

18:41own

18:41tech leadership over the coming years, we still should continue purchasing those chips, but also

18:48trying to look for alternatives and also trying to be a bit smarter on the global market.

18:53And finally, who benefits from this crisis, briefly?

18:57Well, the only ones that so far stand to benefit, well, certainly some of the Chinese companies might,

19:02although they might not be able to use the Nvidia chips that they've been using for years.

19:06Definitely the tech giants, the old ones, we might say, once we were calling them the new ones,

19:11right? Alphabet or Microsoft, that are building their own chips. They're recently also releasing

19:16very important chips. Also, OpenAI has been building its own chips. They might stand to lead because the

19:21whole market will look for alternatives and they are very attractive ones.

19:24All right, Andre, a fascinating conversation. We'll continue that one day. And that does it for us

19:29today, this morning. Thank you for watching. I'm Stefan Grobe. Take care. And I'll see you on Monday.

Europe Today: US envoys meet Putin as Europe pushes to join Ukraine talks

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