In the annals of trans-Atlantic diplomacy, Monday’s meeting between President Trump and European leaders may go down as one of the stranger summits in memory. Historic, yet uncertain in its outcome; momentous, yet ephemeral in its effect on the war in Ukraine; choreographed, yet hostage to the impulses of a single man, Mr. Trump.

在跨大西洋外交的历史中，美国总统特朗普与欧洲领导人周一的会晤也许会成为人们记忆中一次最奇特的峰会。虽然这次峰会具有历史意义，结果却难以预测；看似重大，对乌克兰战争却可能只有短暂的实际影响；精心安排，却受制于一个男人（特朗普）的一时冲动。

As Europe’s leaders began returning to their slumbering capitals, diplomats and foreign policy experts struggled to make sense of a midsummer’s meeting with Mr. Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky that often had a dreamlike quality — with made-for-TV moments and unexpected interludes.

欧洲各国领导人陆续返回他们已进入梦乡的首都时，外交官和外交政策专家们仍在吃力地弄懂特朗普与泽连斯基总统的这次仲夏时节会晤。这次会晤常常给人以一种梦幻感——充满了非常适合电视剧的瞬间和意想不到的插曲。

The seven European leaders put forward a show of support for Mr. Zelensky and unity with each other. They won a potentially vital, if vague, expression of support from Mr. Trump for postwar security guarantees for Ukraine and sidestepped a discussion of territorial concessions, according to Chancellor Friedrich Merz of Germany.

七位欧洲领导人展示了对泽连斯基的支持和相互团结。据德国总理默茨说，他们从特朗普那里赢得了一个尽管含糊，但极其重要的表态，即他对保障乌克兰的战后安全持支持态度，同时规避了割让领土的讨论。

Still, they all but acquiesced to Mr. Trump’s abandonment of a cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine as a condition for further talks. Analysts said that put Europe’s leaders essentially where they were before Mr. Trump’s meeting with President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Alaska last week: subject to the president’s faith that he can conjure a deal with the Russian leader to end the grinding war.

尽管如此，他们差不多默然接受了特朗普放弃将俄乌停火作为后续谈判前提的做法。分析人士指出，这让欧洲领导人基本上回到了特朗普上周在阿拉斯加与俄罗斯总统普京见面之前的状态：依赖于特朗普对自己能与俄罗斯领导人变戏法般达成协议、结束这场旷日持久战争的信念。

“In Anchorage and in Washington, it was a triumph of empty vagueness and meaningless commitments,” said Gérard Araud, who served as France’s ambassador to the United States during Mr. Trump’s first term. “In both cases, no firm decision has been taken. Nothing has changed.”

“安克雷奇和华盛顿的会晤是空洞含糊、毫无意义的承诺的胜利，”曾在特朗普的第一个总统任期担任法国驻美大使的杰拉尔·阿劳德说。“两个地方的会晤都没有做出任何实质性的决定。什么都没有改变。”

Mr. Araud said Mr. Trump’s reassuring words about security guarantees, and the lack of a blowup between him and Mr. Zelensky, were a relief for Europeans. But the absence of a detailed, agreed plan for negotiations with Russia, he said, could store up problems for the future. The worrisome scenario, Mr. Araud said, was “talks and talks, which lead to nothing but possible misunderstanding.”

阿劳德表示，特朗普关于安全保障的安抚之辞，以及他没有与泽连斯基爆发冲突的表现让欧洲人松了口气。但他也指出，缺乏一个与俄罗斯谈判的具体共识方案可能会给未来带来后患。阿劳德说，一个令人担心的局面将是“谈了又谈，除了可能引发误解外毫无成果”。

俄罗斯总统普京和特朗普上周五在安克雷奇的埃尔门多夫-理查森联合基地。

Diplomats pointed out that the remarkable spectacle of European leaders ditching their summer holiday plans to rush to Washington was prompted less by a rare opportunity to make peace than by the fear that Mr. Trump might attempt to bully Mr. Zelensky, as he did in a turbulent Oval Office meeting in February. This time, the fear was Mr. Trump would try to force the Ukrainian president into a one-sided, land-for-peace deal with Russia.

外交官们指出，欧洲领导人们打断自己的暑期休假计划，匆忙奔赴华盛顿的壮观场景，与其说是出于一个难得的议和机会，不如说是担心特朗普可能会像今年2月在椭圆形办公室里那场充满火药味的会晤一样，试图再次胁迫泽连斯基。这次的担心是，特朗普会试图迫使乌克兰总统与俄罗斯达成只对一方有利的以土地换和平的协议。

“Zelensky and seven European leaders rushed to Washington for one reason,” said R. Nicholas Burns, a former American ambassador to NATO and China. “They don’t trust Trump’s commitment to a free and independent Ukraine or his mystifying infatuation with Putin and his authoritarian persona.”

“泽连斯基和七位欧洲领导人奔赴华盛顿只有一个原因，”曾先后担任美国常驻北约代表和驻华大使的尼古拉斯·伯恩斯说。“他们不相信特朗普对自由独立的乌克兰的承诺，也不理解他对普京及其威权主义形象的莫名痴迷。”

In one of the day’s more dramatic moments, Mr. Trump left his guests to place a call to Mr. Putin. They discussed the possibility of a bilateral meeting between Mr. Putin and Mr. Zelensky, and a trilateral follow-up including Mr. Trump.

周一会晤期间最戏剧性的一幕是，特朗普丢下宾客去给普京打电话。两人讨论了普京与泽连斯基举行双边会谈，以及有特朗普参加的三方后续会谈的可能性。

Mr. Putin suggested Moscow as a venue, an offer he first floated in Anchorage, a senior European diplomat briefed on the call said. European leaders were frightened by that scenario, but Mr. Trump politely declined Mr. Putin, the diplomat said.

一位听取了双方通话情况介绍的欧洲高级外交官说，普京建议把莫斯科作为会谈地点，该建议是他最早在安克雷奇提出的。该外交官表示，欧洲领导人对该设想感到恐慌，不过特朗普已婉拒普京提议。

In another odd interlude, Mr. Trump was overheard on an open microphone telling President Emmanuel Macron of France, “I think he wants to make a deal for me. Do you understand that? As crazy as it sounds.”

另一个怪异的插曲是，由于一个麦克风没被关上，有人听到特朗普对法国总统马克龙说：“我觉得他想为了我达成协议。你懂这个意思吗？听起来再离谱也是这样。”

Mr. Macron may have more experience than any Western leader with the frustrations of negotiating with Mr. Putin. He spent early 2022 flying back and forth from Moscow to sit across a long table from the Russian president in a marathon, ultimately fruitless, quest to talk him out of invading Ukraine.

马克龙也许比任何西方领导人都有更多的与普京谈判的懊恼经历。2022年初，他频繁往返莫斯科，与这位俄罗斯总统坐在一张长桌子的两端进行马拉松式的、最终徒劳的会谈，试图说服普京不要入侵乌克兰。

Yet on Monday, Mr. Macron was scrupulously polite and upbeat about Mr. Trump’s prospects for succeeding where he had failed. “Your president indeed is very confident about the capacity he has to get this deal done, which is good news for all of us,” he said in an interview with NBC News.

不过在周一，马克龙对特朗普在他本人未能做成的事情上取得成功的前景表现出极为谨慎的礼貌与乐观。“贵国总统确实对他有能力把这件事情做成非常有信心，这对我们所有人来说都是好消息，”马克龙在接受NBC新闻采访时说。

俄罗斯官方媒体发布的图片显示，普京总统和法国总统克龙2022年在克里姆林宫。马克龙尝试阻止俄罗斯入侵乌克兰，但未获成功。

Mr. Macron also has plenty of experience dealing with Mr. Trump, having come into office four months after his first inauguration. The relationship has had its ups and downs. A military parade on the Champs-Élysées in 2017 dazzled Mr. Trump, but crossed wires over Israel and Gaza at a Group of 7 meeting in Canada in June left him grouchy and complaining that “Emmanuel” is “always wrong.” But on Monday, the French president followed a time-tested script in placating his host.

马克龙与特朗普打交道同样经验丰富，他是在特朗普第一次就任总统的四个月后出任法国总统的。两人的关系时好时坏。2017年，特朗普应邀出席了让他赞叹不已的香榭丽舍大街阅兵式，但马克龙今年6月在加拿大出席七国集团会议时有关以色列和加沙的言论让特朗普满腹牢骚，他抱怨说，“埃马纽埃尔总是错的。”但这位法国总统周一安抚东道主时用的完全是经过时间考验的脚本。

“European leaders have figured out the Trump playbook and are playing it well,” said Mujtaba Rahman, an expert on Europe at the political risk consultancy Eurasia Group. “Europe now clearly has a seat at the table, indeed many seats at the table,” he added, noting that even the European Commission, a longtime bugbear for Mr. Trump, was represented by its president, Ursula von der Leyen.

“欧洲领导人已对特朗普的行事套路了如指掌，而且玩得得心应手，”政治风险咨询公司欧亚集团的欧洲事务专家穆杰塔巴·拉赫曼说。“欧洲现在显然在谈判桌上有一席之地，实际上有很多席位，”他补充道，并指出，就连长期以来令特朗普头疼的欧盟委员会也派了代表——欧盟委员会主席乌尔苏拉·冯德莱恩——出席了周一的会晤。

Mr. Rahman said the leaders not only handled Mr. Trump well but also presented a coherent and consistent approach in dealing with him. While Mr. Merz and Mr. Macron both raised the importance of a cease-fire, neither pressed it to the point that it antagonized Mr. Trump or opened fissures in their unified front.

拉赫曼表示，欧洲领导人们不仅很好地应对了特朗普，而且在与其打交道时展现出协调一致的策略。虽然默茨和马克龙都提出了停火的重要性，但都未过度施压以免触怒特朗普或破坏统一战线。

“We were well prepared and well-coordinated,” Mr. Merz told reporters after the meeting. “We also represented the same viewpoints. I think that really pleased the American president, in the sense that he noticed that we Europeans are speaking with one voice here.”

“我们有充分的准备，而且协调一致，”默茨在会晤后对记者说。“各方立场高度统一。美国总统显然对此感到满意，他注意到在这件事情上，我们欧洲人是在用同一个声音说话。”

Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain, who has spearheaded Europe’s efforts to try to build a multinational peacekeeping force for Ukraine, emphasized Mr. Trump’s openness to an American role in that effort. He said it was also clear now that no peace deal would be negotiated over Mr. Zelensky’s head.

英国首相斯塔默已发起倡议，让欧洲在乌克兰组建一支多国维和部队，他强调，特朗普对美国参与这项努力持开放态度。斯塔默说，现在也很明确了，任何和平谈判都不会绕过泽连斯基进行。

“That is a recognition of the principle that on some of these issues, whether it’s territory or the exchange of prisoners, or the very serious issue of the return of children, that is something where Ukraine must be at the table,” said Mr. Starmer, before he returned to an interrupted family vacation in Scotland. (Tens of thousands of Ukrainian children were abducted and deported into Russia during the war, leading to often frantic searches by their parents.)

“这体现了一个基本共识，即在某些问题上，无论是领土问题、战俘交换问题，还是归还乌克兰儿童这个非常严肃的问题，解决它们都需要乌克兰在谈判桌上，”斯塔默在返回苏格兰前说，他是打断了全家在苏格兰的度假来美国的。（战时有数以万计的乌克兰儿童遭强行掳俄罗斯，引发父母疯狂寻亲。）

For Europe’s leaders, these facts underline how much has changed since they gathered in London in March after Mr. Trump’s explosive first meeting with Mr. Zelensky. There, they contemplated a future in which the United States seemed determined to forsake its post-World War II role as a guarantor of peace in Europe.

对欧洲领导人来说，这些事实凸显出自今年3月伦敦会晤以来的巨大变化，那是在特朗普与泽连斯基引发轩然大波的首次会晤之后。他们当时曾担忧美国决意放弃自己“二战”以来作为欧洲和平保障者的角色。

欧洲领导人今年3月在伦敦就乌克兰问题举行了峰会。

Since then, NATO’s members, prodded by Mr. Trump, have pledged increases in their military budgets. They have put together plans for an ambitious “coalition of the willing” to help secure a peace in Ukraine. Britain and France have aligned doctrines for the use of their nuclear arsenals; Britain and Germany signed a mutual defense treaty; while the European Union has set up a funding mechanism to allow members to borrow to meet their larger defense commitments.

自伦敦峰会以来，北约成员国已在特朗普的敦促下承诺增加各自的军事预算。它们已为帮助确保乌克兰的和平制定了雄心勃勃的“志愿者联盟”计划。英法已就它们核武库的使用问题发表了联合宣言；英德签署了共同防御条约；同时，欧盟已建立了金融机制，允许成员国借款，以便履行它们在防务上投入更多资金的承诺。

And yet, diplomats and analysts warned, the fate of the trans-Atlantic alliance still hangs in the balance, dependent on an American president who was uncharacteristically polite to Mr. Zelensky and his European guests on Monday but could shift his tone on a dime, particularly after his next encounter with Mr. Putin.

但外交官和分析人士警告，跨大西洋联盟的未来仍不明朗，因为这要取决于美国总统，尽管他周一对泽连斯基和他的欧洲客人们表现出不同于往常的礼貌，但他可能会突然改变态度，尤其是在他下次与普京碰面之后。

“While President Trump proved effective in convincing NATO allies to commit to a historic increase in defense spending,” Mr. Burns, the former NATO ambassador, said, “he has failed to lead on the greatest threat to the future of the alliance — a vengeful and violent Vladimir Putin.”

“虽然特朗普总统成功说服了北约盟国承诺实现国防开支投的里程碑式增长，”曾任美国常驻北约代表的伯恩斯说，“但他未能领导北约解决未来的最大威胁——那个图谋复仇、暴力成性的弗拉基米尔·普京。”