Spotlight: U.S., Europe united for now

When it comes to oratory, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is no comparison to U.S. President Barack Obama. Always toneless and hardly cracking any jokes, Merkel's speech invites her audience's minds to wander.

However, the messages of her speech are rarely tainted with ambiguity, and her speech in the White House on Monday was apparently no exception.

Exactly one week after a whole plethora of reports emerged which claimed a possible U-turn on the Obama administration's previous policy of not arming the Ukrainian forces with lethal weapons, Merkel reaffirmed on Monday that a military solution might fail, but she also stressed that unity between Europe and the United States could hardly be challenged.

"You may rest assured that no matter what we decide, the alliance between the United States and Europe will continue to stand, will continue to be solid, even though on certain issues we may not always agree," said Merkel.

While Merkel's first message was not new, her second one was after a heated weekend in Munich, Germany, where pointed exchanges between U.S. officials and their European counterparts laid bare the stark division within U.S.-European coalition in terms of how to solve the Ukraine crisis.

Both leaders brooked no delay in staging a show of unity, and Obama was apparently more desperate.

"Russian aggression has only reinforced the unity of the United States and Germany and our allies and partners around the world," said Obama, adding that he was encouraged about the degree to which U.S.-European unity was maintained on the issue.

For any spectators, the degree of transatlantic unity on Ukraine crisis was not that impressive as Obama claimed.

After staunchly opposing providing lethal weapons to Kiev on Saturday in Munich, Merkel's stance was bluntly challenged by U.S. attendants, including chairman of the U.S. Foreign Relations Committee Senator Bob Corker, and Senator John McCain, another powerful advocate for arming Kiev in U.S. Congress, who went even further, simply dismissing Merkel's stance as "foolishness".

Obama and Merkel met in Washington ahead of a summit slated for Wednesday in Minsk, Belarus, where Merkel and French President Francois Hollande would join leaders of Russia and Ukraine in a new bid to strike a peace deal.

"I think both Angela and I have emphasized that the prospect for a military solution to this problem has always been low," said Obama, only minutes later to left open the prospect of exporting lethal weapons to Kiev, a scenario which opponents, including Merkel, feared would trigger a proxy war with Moscow.

"It is true that if, diplomacy fails, what I've asked my team to do is to look at all options," said Obama. "And the possibility of lethal defensive weapons is one of those options that's being examined."

Although admitting the prospect of the upcoming summit was fraught with uncertainties, Merkel hinted that Washington's unilateral actions even after diplomacy fails would not be something Europe would like to see.

"But if, at a certain point in time, one has to say that a success is not possible, even if one puts every effort into it," said Merkel.

"Then the United States and Europe have to sit together and try and explore further possibilities of what one can do," she said.

"Whenever you have political conflicts, it has always proved to be right to try again and again to solve such a conflict," said Merkel, echoing her previous remarks last weekend at the Munich conference that persistence won the Cold War.

And her persistence this time may mean a deeper crack in future U.S.-European unity. Endi