Ex-Ukraine foreign minister predicts China is ‘main beneficiary’ of Trump foreign policy

China will be “the main beneficiary” of US President Donald Trump’s foreign policies, including his decision to align with Russia over Ukraine, Kyiv’s former foreign minister Dmytro Kuleba has said.

“I’m not surprised by the fact, but I’m surprised by how quickly this fact was exposed and literally formalised,” said Kuleba, who served as foreign minister for more than four years, including the first 2½ years of the war with Russia.

Following the spectacle in the Oval Office on Friday, Trump paused delivery of military aid to Ukraine in a major escalation of tensions between the US and Ukraine. An unidentified official with the White House said the aid would be suspended until Kyiv was committed to peace, several US media reported on Monday.

During the fiery encounter in Washington, Trump told Zelensky he should be more “thankful” for US support and said he was “gambling with World War III” by rejecting Washington’s plans for a ceasefire. The Ukrainian president was subsequently asked to leave, without signing a deal on critical minerals, and without US support for his country.

Kuleba described the incident as “an attack not only on President Zelensky himself, but on the country that he represents”, adding that “many other leaders from around the world, most notably from Europe, [could] easily imagine themselves in Zelensky’s shoes”.