and joining me now is Sir Peter West mot the former British ambassador to the United States previously to France and to Turkey and I think in previous years you were posted in Iran with relations diplomatic relations with the UK great to be with you again there's so much going on and thank you so much let's just talk about Europe at large you know bracing for Donald Trump 2.0 for the the new Trump presidency he seems to be already assuming the mantle from a diminishing Joe Biden for a lot of other reasons but Trump is doing
things like taking a trip to France for the notredam you know reopening but also he'll be with a lot of European leaders in the past he he met with the you know the Japanese prime minister with others who came to maral Lago completely appropriate to to be getting going abroad during the transition it's unusual for an American president I think it is unusual president I should say there was some of uh there was a if not a law which suggests that until you've actually got to the inauguration stage that the incoming team should keep their
distance especially from foreign governments whatever that convention was it's gone out the window and they are very happily talking to representatives of different governments including the British but but you know not just them and going to Paris I think is is he will obviously enjoy that enormously the guest of honor if you like President macron uh let us hope that the French government doesn't fall in the coming hours and that that becomes the real story is a political crisis in France but it might could political crisis there as there is in Germany and a lot
a lot of other countries Western allies exactly are really fragile right now so Western allies are fragile Western democracy not having a good run in a number of countries in the UK there is a newish government which came into power in June with a big thumping majority of 170 odd seats and yet they've got into some difficulty in their first few months in power some big resignations from that cabinet yes and uh and the UK has got a number of inherited problems uh it's got no economic growth it's got very low productivity and the government
needs to address those things and already members of the labor party are complaining about the you know if you like slightly wooden start the new British government's got off so you got a German political crisis a French one the Brits are not in crisis but we are we have got poor growth and as your commentator was saying just now we've really got a pull our finger out as Mark Ruto was saying and do more to look after European prosperity and security at a time when the incoming president of the United States is saying that the
United States is not going to be doing as much for European security particularly for Ukraine as it has in the past and Joe Biden is really boking up Ukraine funding weaponization at to the point where he's being criticized by some in the US for depleting our weapon stockpiles which were already Low by giving Ukraine so much that we keep seeing on an almost daily basis trying to Trump proof Ukraine giving zinsky some more armor at least you know not literally armor but lots of good stuff but at the same time is it too little too
late because of the stal maiden DC that caused critical three or four months last spring when Russia did advance I think that the West has generally speaking been too slow in providing the military support the ukrainians need to deal with the Russian invasion if you remember all of our generals whether they're British or American or French thought this would be over in a few days if not two or 3 weeks and here we are two and a half years on is a negotiation inevitable now and the ukrainians are still fighting for their lives I think
a UK a negotiation does become inevitable not just because there's an incoming president in the United States who doesn't want to do much but because everyone is getting depleted uh and because many people are now saying that realistically it is not going to be an option for Ukraine to regain all the occupied territory both Crimea and the Eastern parts of Ukraine up in the dbass region the question is what sort of negotiation will there be and what guarantee can there be that the rest of Ukraine does not then get attacked by Vladimir Putin after whatever
ceas fire is negotiated should there be some pre-at security commitment to Ukraine so that however it comes out of this negotiation maybe giving up as much as 20% of Russian occupied territory and that is anatha to the Ukrainian government at the moment uh I think if there is going to be a negotiation one of the reasons why I think President Biden is is correct but and the rest of us are doing this too we have to ensure that the ukrainians have got chips on the table when and if a negotiation takes place if they are
totally depleted and losing then Putin will think that he's won and he can dictate terms we have to avoid that so we've got to ensure that they are in a strong position depleting our own reserves yes but let's be honest about this 83% of all the money voted by the US Congress to help Ukraine militarily goes to us defense companies to produce new new stuff helps our GDP it helps your GDP and it helps the the arms compan let me ask you about intelligence sharing because there is there are several nominees or prospective nominees there
now choices not yet being yes but one is telsey gabard and she has not only not no experience she has repeated Russian propaganda talking points about Ukraine she has had secret visits with Bashar Al Assad in Syria and she has no experience in managing 18 intelligence agencies so she's been widely criticized um the relationship with the UK the most important of our 5i partners is Ironclad it's hardwired but will there be ways to compartmentalize and hold things back if someone like she is preparing the Daily Brief for the president of the United States there are
ways in which you can ensure that a filter is applied to the provision of the hard intelligence that goes into pdb even in the old days sometimes mistakes were made with people they be reluctant to share with someone who is arguably not reliable that the five eyes relationship has to be based on sharing but if there is a risk of it being politicized or deliberately leaked or twisted or distorted for political reasons then there will be a a move within the alliance to hold back at least some of the most sensitive intelligence it will be
a worry it may be that once she's there if she's confirmed and so on that the the problem will not beis not arise but there's a lot of concern you're quite right amongst America's intelligence allies that this this could go wrong for
