The Meeting That Failed, and the Deal That Didn’t
On 28 February 2025, Volodymyr Zelensky arrived at the White House to sign an agreement on Ukraine’s mineral resources.
He left without signing it.
The meeting in the Oval Office, held in front of television cameras, turned into an open argument. Zelensky raised concerns about trusting Vladimir Putin and asked about security guarantees. Vice President JD Vance and President Trump rebuked him, and Trump called his conduct “very disrespectful”. The Ukrainian delegation was asked to leave.
Most commentators assumed the deal was dead.
Two months later, on 30 April, the two countries signed it. And it looked quite different from where the talks had begun. Earlier, Trump had spoken of wanting around $500 billion in return for US support. The final agreement set up a jointly governed reconstruction investment fund, with Ukraine contributing revenues from new resource projects and existing state assets left under Ukrainian control. Past US aid wasn’t treated as a debt to be repaid.
So what happened in between?
Part of the answer is that the cameras went away. A negotiation conducted in front of an audience isn’t really between the people in the room. Each side is also performing for voters, allies and critics, and backing down in public carries a cost that backing down in private doesn’t.
The other part is time. Emotions that run hot in one meeting cool. Positions that seemed fixed turn out to be negotiable once nobody has to be seen conceding.
This is territory explored in Marta Skarbek’s This is Negotiation, which examines the role emotions play in negotiation and why pauses, silence and a change of setting can rescue a conversation that appears to have collapsed.
When a negotiation blows up, is it better to push through while the issues are fresh, or to walk away and let everyone cool down?
This is Negotiation by Marta Skarbek: https://a.co/d/0a7z6xLx
#Negotiation, #EmotionalIntelligence, #Diplomacy, #Ukraine, #Leadership, #Communication, #ConflictResolution, #DealMaking, #Geopolitics, #BusinessSkills, #ThisIsNegotiation, #MartaSkarbek
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