Oliver Crook

The day today is still dealing with that one fundamental issue, those territorial concessions, the Russians wanting all of the Donbass to basically be given to the Russians, despite the fact that they do not control at all.

It is very hard to see how to break through that impasse.

The aim here for the Americans is to get all three of these sitting at the same table, the Ukrainians, the Russians, and the Americans.

Not clear if that is going to happen.

It might be bilateral talks, two pairs of them that we've seen in the past where basically the U.S.

functions as a go-between where they have talks with the Ukrainians, talks with the Russians, and then they sort of try to bridge the gaps.

So that's what we're going to be looking for.

And if we do actually get a discussion where you have all three at the table, I think that would be a significant sign of progress.

We know apparently there will not be an invasion of Greenland, which is a large relief for everybody in Brussels and everybody presumably sitting in the room there in Davos.

We know that the tariffs will not go in effect on February the 1st, and we know that this is apparently down to Secretary General Mark Rutte's efforts to basically talk Trump down and, as ever, to create an off-ramp for the President of the United States to make it seem like there has been a victory in this, while at the same time trying to not contravene some of the red lines here in Europe.

So Trump has said about this...

that this basically will deliver everything the United States wants from a security standpoint, also from a raw material standpoint.

In terms of the actual details of the deal, we have very little.

We understand that it will apparently not impinge upon Danish sovereignty.

A deal is a deal.

And when friends shake hands, it must mean something.

Donald Trump, in what seems to be a sort of tradition now, before his trips coming to Europe, he was posting screenshots of text messages he got from Mark Rutte and from the president of France, Emmanuel Macron.

And I'll just read here what he put out.

And this is apparently a text from Macron saying, my friend, we are totally in line on Syria.

We can do great things on Iran.