Taoiseach Micheál Martin has described the scenes in the Oval Office on Friday as “quite extraordinary” and “very, very unsettling, I think, for a lot of people watching it”.
Asked about US president Donald Trump‘s public criticism of Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Mr Martin expressed his “utmost admiration” for the Ukrainian president who “stood his ground” following Russia’s invasion.
Mr Martin was speaking on RTÉ‘s The Late Late Show where he said he was still looking forward to his meeting with Mr Trump which is scheduled to take place on March 12th.
Mr Martin said the collapse of talks between Mr Zelenskiy and Mr Trump in the White House on Friday would not be the end of engagement with the United States on Ukrainian or European security.
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“I think Europe will continue to engage,” Mr Martin said as European leaders were worried that after Ukraine the next counties to face invasion from Russia might be “Estonia, the Baltics, Latvia and Poland”.
Mr Martin said “I think there will be an attempt to re-engage by some of the key European leaders on this issue. There’s a long way to go here.”
Mr Martin said he was “indeed” looking forward to his visit to the White House to meet Mr Trump.
“We have an extraordinarily strong, robust economic relationship,” he said. Ireland was “the sixth largest investor into the United States, and then the United States of [invests through] many multinationals in Ireland, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs”.
He said he would be telling Mr Trump of Ireland’s investment in the US.
“It’s a two-way, robust relationship. It’s not one way,” he said. He instanced Ryanair which he said one of the biggest buyers in the world of Boeing aircraft. Glanbia and the Kerry Group were all significant employers in America as well as smaller Irish companies who are “also creating jobs in in in the US”.
Mr Martin said “I’ve never met Donald Trump, but I’m looking forward to meeting with him.
“He approaches politics differently from your conventional politician But ... he is a business person, first and foremost. He said it today he believes in deal making and transactions. So you’ve got to try and understand a person you’re meeting with. Respect the person you’re meeting with.”
Mr Martin said it was important that as Irish people “we protect our own interests, particularly our economic interests”.
On the question of US tariffs Mr Martin said “a lot gets said” but “the devil might very well be in the detail here”.
“Tariffs will be difficult for us, no point in saying otherwise. We’re a small open economy, we depend on trade, we depend on free trade, free trade has lifted the world. Probably the greatest era of rising prosperity in the world has been through free trade. And Ireland is very much here to support free trade. and those are points I’be making, you know, in my conversation.”
In a separate post on social media, Mr Martin wrote: “Having visited Ukraine twice, I’ve seen the resilience and courage of its people. Ireland stands with Ukraine. When I met with President Zelenskiy yesterday I reiterated our full support for a just, durable and sustained peace.”
Tánaiste and Minister for Foreign Affairs Simon Harris said he spoke to the Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha who was in Washington on Friday and to Ukraine’s ambassador to Ireland Larysa Gerasko after the Oval Office exchange.
Mr Harris’s spokesperson said he “expressed his full solidarity with them and support from the people of Ireland”.
“Ukraine is not to blame for this war brought about by Russia’s illegal invasion. We stand with Ukraine,” Mr Harris added in a social media post.
