“In diplomacy, what matters is not where you are, but where you are absent”: Zelensky was positioned farther from Trump in the group photo at the NATO summit

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was positioned far from U.S. President Donald Trump during the group photo session at the NATO summit in The Hague.

The head of the White House stood nearly at the center of the front row, while the Ukrainian leader was placed much farther to the right in the second row.

Standing next to Trump was Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, while to Zelensky’s left was European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. In the third row, behind Zelensky, were British and Italian Prime Ministers Keir Starmer and Giorgia Meloni, and in front of him stood French President Emmanuel Macron and Czech President Petr Pavel.

Earlier, The Washington Post reported that NATO officials at the summit in The Hague were deliberately trying to keep Zelensky and Trump at a distance from one another.