Vance: Adversaries are ‘afraid' of US military, and that makes tough talks like Putin possible
Vance's comments come as he's spent the past several days meeting with multiple European leaders in preparation for Trump's meeting in Anchorage, Alaska, with Putin in an attempt to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
"You guys make that possible," Vance, a former Marine, told U.S. troops stationed at Royal Air Force Base Fairford. "You guys are the reason why we can go into a negotiation with strength. You guys are the reason why we have leverage in these conversations with world leaders. Because they know that if we cut a deal, it is backed up by the finest fighting force anywhere in the world. And that is what makes your job so important."
"The fact that people are impressed by you, the fact that so many people are frankly afraid of you is why we're able to do what we do as an administration," Vance said.
Royal Air Force Base Fairford is home to the U.S. Air Force's 501st Combat Support Wing and the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron. It is also paramount for U.S. Air Force operations and serves as Air Force Global Strike Command's preferred bomber forward operating base in Europe.
The Air Force routinely sends bomber aircraft to the military base as part of Bomber Task Force Europe 25-2 to train with NATO allies. For example, multiple Air Force B-52H Stratofortress bombers from Fairford participated in an exercise with Germany and Romania over NATO's eastern flank in March 2022 — just after Putin launched his invasion into Ukraine.
Roughly 10,000 U.S. troops are based in the U.K., according to foreign policy think-tank Council on Foreign Relations.
Vance told troops that he had just wrapped up a call with approximately 30 European leaders, coming on the heels of various meetings with other European allies about Ukraine talks in recent days.
A Saturday meeting with representatives of Ukraine and other European allies led to "significant progress" on ending the conflict in Ukraine, a U.S. official told Fox News Digital. More details on the discussions were not available.
But Vance said in a Sunday interview that he informed European leaders the U.S. is "done with the funding of the Ukraine war business," and that they must take on more of the burden in resolving the war.
"What we said to Europeans is simply, 'First of all, this is in your neck of the woods. This is in your back door. You guys have got to step up and take a bigger role in this thing, and if you care so much about this conflict, you should be willing to play a more direct and a more substantial way in funding this war yourself,'" Vance told Fox News Sunday.
Trump told reporters Monday that he'd be able to tell almost instantly if Putin is serious about negotiating a deal or not, and that he'd keep European leaders like Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in the loop after the meeting.
"If it's a fair deal, I will reveal it to the European Union leaders and the NATO leaders and also to President Zelenskyy," Trump said. "I may say, 'Lots of luck, keep fighting,' or I may say we can make a deal."
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