The tenuous (and likely temporary) truce in Ukraine may have put another feather in German chancellor Angela Merkel’s cap: It seemingly vindicates her Diplomatie statt Waffen (“diplomacy instead of weapons”) stand against Obama. And it’ll be a while before everyone wakes up to how Russia uses the freeze to consolidate territorial control. In the meantime, Merkel is once again the woman of the hour in Europe.

But there’s still one thing she wants from the Americans: TTIP, the Trans-Atlantic Trade & Investment Partnership, the huge U.S.-EU free-trade agreement that harmonizes regulations. Merkel made a little-remarked-upon pitch for it while in Washington earlier this month.