US Army secretary takes unlikely role as key negotiator in push to end Russia-Ukraine war
Washington (AP): In a matter of days, Army Secretary Dan Driscoll vaulted from being the leader of a military bureaucracy — where he's been cutting red tape to quickly buy inexpensive drones — to a key negotiator in the Trump administration's push to end the Russia-Ukraine war.
The boyish Iraq War veteran, former venture capitalist and friend of Vice President JD Vance went from presenting President Donald Trump's plan to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Kyiv to sitting down with Russian officials in the United Arab Emirates on Monday and Tuesday, heading up the latest phase of talks on a possible deal to halt the fighting.
Trump appears to believe Driscoll's efforts are going well, posting on social media that “my team has made tremendous progress.”
“In the hopes of finalizing this Peace Plan," Trump wrote Tuesday, “I have directed my Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to meet with President Putin in Moscow and, at the same time, Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll will be meeting with the Ukrainians.”
It's an unlikely assignment for the Army's top civilian leader, who got the job in February at age 38. His Senate confirmation hearing focused on how the Army could modernize its systems, improve recruiting and beef up the military industrial base, not international diplomacy.
Tapping an unexpected diplomat
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Driscoll only learned of his new role as a negotiator about a week before he was sitting across the table from Zelenskyy, a US official said.
The official, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive plans, said Driscoll always had planned to visit Ukraine but the trip was aimed at learning more about how its military has been using drones in warfare, not to negotiate peace.
The official said after Driscoll was named as a special representative by the White House, he first travelled to Europe for briefings before heading to Ukraine.
There, Driscoll clasped hands with Zelenskyy and expressed admiration for Ukrainian soldiers, saying that even the most combat-hardened American troops “never had to defend their homeland.”
“When we the Army look and see how well you guys have done, it's remarkable,” Driscoll told Zelenskyy last week. The Ukrainian leader said he spoke for almost an hour Friday with Vance and Driscoll about the proposal.
Driscoll's performance in Ukraine seems to have paid off, because from there, he joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Witkoff and other top negotiators in Geneva to discuss changes to the plan with the Ukrainians before traveling to Abu Dhabi to negotiate with the Russians. The negotiations with Moscow were only a possibility just a week prior, the official said.
The Trump administration shakes things up
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Some experts say his role in the negotiations is an out-of-the-box move by the Trump administration that may or may not pay off.
“I think what is helpful from this administration is its willingness to throw out ideas and try things,” said Max Bergmann, director of the Europe, Russia and Eurasia Program at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies. But he added, “I had not heard of Dan Driscoll, to be frank, in Ukraine-Russia conversations at all.”
Driscoll's value is his connection to the vice president, Bergmann said. Driscoll has known Vance since law school at Yale University and previously served as Vance's adviser, giving the Army secretary a direct line to the Trump administration — and more leverage — during negotiations.
“There is something to be said about having someone who is probably texting with the vice president and therefore has that political juice,” said Bergmann, who served in State Department positions during President Barack Obama's administration.
But Bergmann said there's also merit to having expertise, particularly on an issue as fraught as Russia's war with Ukraine: "The details really matter here.”
Daniel Fried, an Atlantic Council fellow who is a former US ambassador to Poland, said Driscoll can overcome a lack of expertise if he has someone advising him. Plus, the fact that Driscoll is trusted by the administration is a notable asset.
“You don't want to have someone who reaches a handshake deal with the Ukrainians or the Russians and doesn't have the confidence of the upper reaches of the Trump administration,” Fried said.
Driscoll's aspirations as a politician
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Driscoll's resume did not suggest he would be a top American negotiator trying to end the most protracted war in Europe since 1945, though he had aspirations to be a politician.
Driscoll told senators during his confirmation hearing that he “joined the Army as a middle-class public school kid from the mountains of North Carolina,” noting that his dad was an Army infantryman in Vietnam and his grandfather was an Army decoder in World War II.
“Most important, I intend to be the soldiers' secretary of the Army, not of the generals or of the bureaucracy,” he said in his opening statement. “It is the American soldier to whom our national defense and prosperity are entrusted.”
He went to the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, enrolling in its business school and graduating in three years, according to a profile on the school's website.
Driscoll served in the Army as an armour officer for more than three years and earned the rank of first lieutenant. He deployed to Iraq from October 2009 to July 2010.
After law school, Driscoll worked for venture capital firms. He ran unsuccessfully in the Republican primary for a North Carolina congressional seat in 2020, getting about 8 per cent of the vote in a crowded field of candidates.
Driscoll has some experience negotiating as Army secretary, involving the Army's need to continue using the only large-scale live-fire training range for ground forces in Hawaii so it can quickly send troops to Asia and the Pacific.
A May public hearing on whether to extend the lease generated hours of testimony against allowing the Army to stay. Many Native Hawaiians and environmental activists upset with the US military's history of damaging lands with target practice and fuel leaks said they wanted the land returned to the state.
Driscoll visited Hawaii in July to discuss the matter with Democratic Hawaii Gov Josh Green, who said he spent significant time speaking to Driscoll and his team.
“Discussions are cordial and are still in the early stages," Green's office said this week.
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Screenwriter Salim Khan on ventilator support and stable, say doctors
Mumbai (PTI): Veteran screenwriter Salim Khan suffered a brain haemorrhage which has been tackled, is on ventilator support as a safeguard and stable, doctors treating him said on Wednesday, a day after he was admitted to the Lilavati Hospital here.
The 90-year-old, one half of the celebrated Salim-Javed duo which scripted films such as "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don" with Javed Akhtar, is in the ICU and recovery might take some time given his age.
"His blood pressure was high for which we treated him and we had to put him on a ventilator because we wanted to do certain investigations. Now the ventilator was put as a safeguard so that his situation doesn't get worse. So it is not that he is critical," Dr Jalil Parkar told reporters.
"We did the investigations that were required and today we have done a small procedure on him, I will not go into the details. The procedure done is called DSA (digital subtraction angiography). The procedure has been accomplished, he is fine and stable and shifted back to ICU. By tomorrow, we hope to get him off the ventilator. All in all, he is doing quite well," he added.
Asked whether he suffered a brain haemorrhage, the doctor said, "Unko thoda haemorrhage hua tha, which we’ve tackled. No surgery is required.
As concern over Khan's health mounted, his children, including superstar Salman Khan and Arbaaz Khan, daughter Alvira, and sons-in-law Atul Agnihotri and Aayush Sharma, have been seen outside the hospital along with other well-wishers. His long-time partner Akhtar was also seen coming out of the hospital.
Khan, a household name in the 70s and 80s, turned 90 on November 24 last year. It was the day Dharmendra, the star of many of his films, including "Sholay", "Seeta aur Geeta" and "Yaadon Ki Baraat", passed away.
Hailing from an affluent family in Indore, Khan arrived in Mumbai in his 20s with dreams of stardom. He was good looking and confident he would make a mark in the industry as an actor. But that did not happen. And then, after struggling for close to a decade and getting confined to small roles in films, he changed lanes.
He worked as an assistant to Abrar Alvi and soon met Akhtar to form one of Hindi cinema's most formidable writing partnerships. They worked together on two dozen movies with most of them achieving blockbuster status.
Other than "Sholay", "Deewar" and "Don", Khan and Akhtar also penned "Trishul", "Zanjeer", "Seeta Aur Geeta", "Haathi Mere Saathi", "Yaadon Ki Baarat" and "Mr India".
