“This deal just signed in Minsk was notable by the absence of the President of the United States,” Bolton said on Friday at a Defense Forum Foundation conference. “We are the leaders of the NATO alliance, and if the president [Barack Obama] doesn’t want to lead the NATO alliance, he might do us the courtesy of telling us that.”
The “shattering of the NATO alliance” is now a possibility because of a lack of US leadership, Bolton argued, saying that other NATO allies “don’t see the United States playing a role at all” in the Ukraine crisis.
European leaders in Germany and France, who brokered the peace talks in Minsk, are trying to cut a deal they may find unsatisfactory “until such a time that America gets a president who is prepared to try to prevent the use of military force in Europe to change boundaries,” Bolton said.
Bolton did not indicate the specific measures the US president should undertake regarding a possible settlement of the Ukraine crisis.
The United States has provided Ukraine with non-lethal military assistance, as well as economic aid since the country faced political upheaval and unrest beginning last year. US President Obama has also coordinated with other NATO allies sanctions against Russia for allegedly destabilizing Ukraine.
In recent months, Bolton has announced he is considering running for US president in 2016.
