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 "Zelenskyy shifts to deal making to woo Trump."

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February 12, 2025

Hello, everyone. Today at WPR, we’re covering Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s dealmaking with U.S. President Donald Trump and France’s military withdrawal from Cote d’Ivoire.

But first, here’s our take on today’s top story:

FPO party leader Herbert Kickl addresses a news conference, in Vienna, Austria, Jan. 7, 2025 (AP photo by Heinz-Peter Bader).

Austria: Coalition talks led by the far-right Freedom Party, or FPO, officially collapsed today after negotiations with the conservative People’s Party, or OVP, reached an impasse. Austrian President Alexander Van der Bellen will now decide whether to give the OVP a second chance to lead coalition talks or call a snap election. (Reuters)

Our Take: The FPO’s first-place finish in Austria’s elections in September was just the latest instance of the surge in support for far-right parties across Europe. But because all the other...

	Subscribe to WPR to read our take on today’s top story.

Over the past three years, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has not shied away from using moral suasion and even guilt trips to prod the U.S. and Europe to deliver the military support Kyiv needs to fight off Russia’s all-out invasion of his country.

With U.S. President Donald Trump back in the White House, however, it seems that Zelenskyy is now mastering the art of the deal. In his latest attempt to shore up financial and military support from Washington, Zelenskyy has put Ukraine’s vast rare earth reserves on the table, hoping the move would whet Trump’s known appetite for a transactional foreign policy, columnist Amanda Coakley writes.

In a Bid for Trump’s Support, Zelenskyy Shifts to Dealmaking By Amanda Coakley In an effort to shore up support for U.S. aid, Zelenskyy put Ukraine’s vast rare earth reserves on the table. It’s a deal Trump seems to like.

*****

On New Year’s Eve, Ivoirian President Alassane Ouattara announced that around 1,000 French troops based in Cote d’Ivoire would begin leaving the country in January. The announcement did not look good for France, especially as it came on the heels of several similar withdrawals and evictions in the region in the previous months.

In November, for instance, both Chad and Senegal had announced the imminent withdrawal of French forces from their countries. And that had followed increasingly anti-French sentiment and protests in the Sahel: France was forced to withdraw its troops from Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger by those countries’ military-led governments in recent years.

Yet, while it is tempting to conflate France’s military exit from Cote d’Ivoire with its troop withdrawals from the Sahelian countries, Senegal and Chad, there is much that differentiates them, Jessica Moody writes.

France’s Military Exit Doesn’t Signal a Split With Cote d’Ivoire By Jessica Moody It’s tempting to conflate France’s military exit from Cote d’Ivoire with its withdrawals from other regional countries. But there are key differences.

Since returning to the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump has signaled that he will prioritize innovation in the AI industry over limiting the technology’s potential risks. In response, other countries seeking to become players in the AI space have followed suit, as was on display at the AI Action Summit in Paris earlier this week.

This week’s question: What should states prioritize in regulating AI technology?

Innovation Safety

We’ll select one person from those who answer the question above to receive a free month of full access to WPR.

At the AI Action Summit in Paris yesterday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance cautioned leaders from Europe and Asia against working with “authoritarian regimes”—in reference to China—for AI technology and manufacturing, while reaffirming Washington’s ambition to be the global leader in the field.

Tech powers like the U.S. and China have pushed increasingly for ever more digital fragmentation, with the rest of the world often bearing the cost. In response, Laura Mahrenbach and Maximilian Mayer suggest that the most effective strategy for countries to navigate the challenges of this fragmentation is likely to be one of “pragmatic resilience.”

U.S.-China Digital Fragmentation Is Putting the World in a Bind By Laura Mahrenbach Jan. 7, 2025 | Tech powers like the U.S. and China are pushing for ever more digital fragmentation. The rest of the world often bears the costs.

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Germany will extend the border checks it imposed in September by six months, the outgoing government announced ahead of elections later this month in which immigration has become a top issue for voters. Germany already had controls on some of its borders before September but extended the checks to all of its borders following a knife attack in August by a Syrian asylum-seeker.

The extension means that Germany will have border controls in place as the EU celebrates the 40th anniversary of the establishment of its flagship Schengen free movement zone, across which most EU citizens have the right to passport-free travel. As John Boyce wrote last year, however, loopholes in the Schengen treaty have made the agreement vulnerable to abuse for politically expedient purposes.

The Politics of Migration Are Fraying the EU’s Borderless Zone By John Boyce Sept. 19, 2024 | Politically expedient moves to crack down on migration are putting the EU’s guarantee of free movement in jeopardy.

*****

Elon Musk’s Tesla opened a new $200 million battery plant in Shanghai yesterday, deepening the company’s economic investment in China even as Musk serves in an administration that is expanding the U.S.-China trade war. The tension underscores the fundamental and as yet unresolved contradiction in Musk’s alliance with U.S. President Donald Trump, which Mary Gallagher wrote about in November.

*****

Today, French President Emmanuel Macron and Indian PM Narendra Modi are visiting Marseille, France, where India is opening a new consulate general. The visit underscores Paris and New Delhi’s deepening partnership, which Washington has tended to be suspicious of. But as Mathieu Droin wrote last year, the U.S. would benefit more from harnessing the opportunities presented by deeper France-India ties.

More from WPR

Charli Carpenter on civil society opposition to Trump. James Bosworth on Argentina’s IMF negotiations. Paul Poast on U.S. foreign aid retrenchment. Sarah Yerkes and Sabina Henneberg on Europe’s untenable migration model.

Read all of our latest coverage here.

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