Beijing’s move comes at a time when Budapest’s relationship with its EU and Nato allies is at a low point
China has offered to deepen security cooperation with Hungary, underscoring Budapest’s warming ties with Beijing just as Hungarian officials snubbed a visiting delegation from Washington.
Hungary’s prime minister, Viktor Orbán, met China’s minister of public security, Wang Xiaohong, on Friday.
Continue reading...Vice-president tells Munich gathering that the US is committed to ‘defend democratic values at home and abroad’
Speaking in Munich today, the Nato secretary-general, Jens Stoltenberg, said that “if we want a lasting peace, we must continue to provide Ukraine with weapons and ammunition.”
He addressed Nato’s push to invest more in defence.
This requires expanding our transatlantic industrial base to increase deliveries to Ukraine and refill our own stocks. And shifting from slow peacetime to the high tempo of conflict – to produce more at a higher speed.
This will help Ukraine, it will make Nato stronger, and it will provide more highly–skilled manufacturing jobs, including here in Bavaria, where Patriot missiles will be built at a new facility.
Continue reading...Jens Stoltenberg believes Congress will finally vote for package but meanwhile Russian forces are advancing near Avdiivka
The US failure to vote through a fresh military aid package for Ukraine is already having an impact on the battlefield, Nato’s secretary general has warned at the end of a defence ministers’ meeting.
Jens Stoltenberg said he still believed Congress would eventually approve the stalled $60bn (£50bn) package, but his cautious remarks came as Nato officials warned Russia was making “significant gains” near the frontline town of Avdiivka.
Continue reading...The ex-president said that ‘if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect’ at rally in South Carolina
Donald Trump has doubled down on his threat to undermine Nato, repeating his threat not to protect countries he believes do not pay enough to maintain the alliance and claiming such nations “laugh at the stupidity” of the US.
On Wednesday night, at a rally in South Carolina, Trump said: “I’ve been saying, ‘Look, if they’re not going to pay, we’re not going to protect, OK?’ And [Joe] Biden who said, ‘Oh, this is so bad. This is so terrible that he would say that.’ No … nobody’s paying their bills.
Continue reading...Nato secretary general says ‘supporting Ukraine is not charity’ but ‘an investment in our own security’
France and Ukraine will sign a bilateral agreement on security commitments tomorrow, the Elysee has announced, Reuters reported.
The agreement was expected to be finalised in Ukraine, but the French president, Emmanuel Macron, had postponed his trip.
Continue reading...Comments draw Britain into debate about European security without US providing bulk of Nato’s nuclear deterrent
The UK could contribute to a new European nuclear shield if Donald Trump becomes US president again, a senior German minister has suggested, drawing British politicians into the debate about how Europe’s security could be bolstered in the event of the Republican frontrunner winning in November.
Questions over a European nuclear deterrence have intensified after Trump’s remarks on Saturday that he would not defend any Nato member that failed to spend 2% of its gross domestic product on defence – and would even encourage Russia to continue attacking.
Continue reading...Jens Stoltenberg accuses Trump of undermining alliance and says 18 members are expected to invest at least 2% of GDP this year
Jens Stoltenberg, Nato’s secretary general, has accused Donald Trump of undermining the basis of the transatlantic alliance as he announced that 18 Nato members were expected to beat the target of spending more than 2% of GDP on defence.
It was the second rebuke by the Nato chief to the Republican frontrunner in less than a week, reinforced by a declaration that Germany was among the countries planning to spend over the threshold for the first time in a generation.
Continue reading...Kentucky senator who opposes the aid package has indicated he will use every tool at his disposal to delay the final vote
The House majority leader, Republican Steve Scalise of Louisiana, will return to Capitol Hill tomorrow after undergoing cancer treatment in recent weeks.
The House speaker, Republican Mike Johnson of Louisiana, welcomed Scalise back with a tweet noting that the majority leader was now in remission.
Continue reading...Tom Cotton echoes fellow GOP senators, saying former president was ‘simply ringing the warning bell’
A leading Republican senator said Donald Trump was “simply ringing the warning bell” when he caused global alarm by declaring he would encourage Russia to attack Nato allies who did not pay enough to maintain the alliance, as Trump’s party closed ranks behind its presumptive presidential nominee.
“Nato countries that don’t spend enough on defense, like Germany, are already encouraging Russian aggression and President Trump is simply ringing the warning bell,” Tom Cotton of Arkansas, a former soldier, told the New York Times.
Continue reading...Polish PM Donald Tusk says ‘all for one, and one for all’ in thinly veiled riposte to Republican frontrunner
European leaders have called for greater unity and military cooperation across the continent in response to comments from Donald Trump that threatened to undermine the basis of Nato.
Donald Tusk, Poland’s prime minister, said on a visit to Paris on Monday that there was “no alternative” to the EU and the transatlantic alliance before a summit in which he discussed deepening defence relationships with the French president, Emmanuel Macron.
Continue reading...Jens Stoltenberg says Nato ‘ready and able to defend all allies’, after Trump invited Russia to attack member countries
The Nato chief, Jens Stoltenberg, has said that any attack on the western military alliance would be met with a “united and forceful response”, after the former US president Donald Trump invited Russia to attack member countries he perceived as not meeting their financial obligations.
Stoltenberg said in a statement: “Any suggestion that allies will not defend each other undermines all of our security, including that of the US, and puts American and European soldiers at increased risk. I expect that regardless of who wins the presidential election, the US will remain a strong and committed Nato ally.”
Continue reading...Centre-right Alexander Stubb declares victory and is congratulated by Pekka Haavisto
Finland’s centre-right former prime minister Alexander Stubb will become the next president after winning an election runoff with rival Pekka Haavisto in the country’s most high-stakes presidential election in a generation.
Stubb, of the National Coalition party, declared victory on Sunday night and Haavisto, a former foreign minister and a member of the Green party running as an independent, congratulated him.
Continue reading...With Republicans blocking US military aid, if Europe does not plug the gap Ukraine risks slow-motion defeat
Ukraine began 2024 on the defensive and Kyiv’s battlefield prospects are dimming further as Republicans in the US Congress appear increasingly to be intent on blocking future military aid. If Europe does not plug the gap, Ukraine risks slow-motion defeat from 2025.
A simple figure sums up the problem. Ukraine is once again being outgunned in this near two-year-old war: the current estimate is that Russia is firing 10,000 artillery shells a day to Ukraine’s 2,000, a dismal ratio that may yet worsen in the absence of future US gifts of ammunition.
Continue reading...The Joe Biden White House rebuked the former president’s comments as ‘appalling and unhinged’
Donald Trump has said he would “encourage” Russia to attack any of the US’s Nato allies whom he considers to have not met their financial obligations.
The Joe Biden White House immediately rebuked the former president’s comments, saying in a statement: “Encouraging invasions of our closest allies by murderous regimes is appalling and unhinged – and it endangers American national security, global stability, and our economy at home.”
Continue reading...Hungary remains alone in holding up Stockholm’s accession despite PM’s promises not to be last to ratify
Hungary’s ruling Fidesz party has boycotted a session of parliament called by the opposition to ratify Sweden’s Nato membership, even as a group of western ambassadors arrived in the building to urge a vote.
For months, the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orbán, repeatedly promised his counterparts within Nato that the country would not be last to sign off on Sweden’s membership.
Continue reading...French president says future security architecture of Europe could no longer be settled by the US and Russia
The European Union has to make bold decisions to defend Ukraine, pre-empting any US decision to withhold or reduce its military support, Emmanuel Macron has said.
In a speech in Sweden, which hopes to be the next country to join Nato, the French president also said the future security architecture of Europe, including arms control agreements covering European territory, could no longer be settled simply by the US and Russia, and Europe had to have a right to determine its own future.
Continue reading...Alexander Stubb says Ukraine invasion spurred his candidacy, as far-right opponent gains ground before Sunday’s vote
Finland’s leading presidential candidate has said foreign policy and security are “existential” issues for the Nordic country, as it prepares to head to the polls for the first time since joining Nato.
Speaking on Friday at a breakfast event in Helsinki two days before Finland’s presidential election at a cafe named after him, Alexander Stubb, who was prime minister from 2014 to 2015, said he had thought he was finished with national politics. But Russia’s invasion of Ukraine had changed his mind.
Continue reading...In first such admission, previously secret document says Danish aircraft participated in attacks linked to civilian deaths
Denmark’s defence ministry said it would launch a review after evidence emerged showing its air force participated in airstrikes on Libya that killed 14 civilians in 2011, the first time any of the 10 countries involved in the Nato bombing campaign has acknowledged a possible link to non-combatant casualties.
Documents released under freedom of information show the Danish air force had concluded privately as long ago as 2012 that two F-16 attacks were connected to civilian casualty reports compiled by the UN, media and human rights groups.
An airstrike on Surman, nearly 40 miles west of Tripoli, on 20 June 2011 that killed 12 civilians, including five children and six members of one family. A surviving family member said the target was solely a residential compound, owned by a retired Libyan government member, but Nato said at the time it was “a legitimate military target”, despite reports of non-combatant deaths.
The bombing of an apartment block in Sirte, central Libya, on 16 September 2011 that killed two, a man and a woman who was five months pregnant. Although there were unconfirmed reports of snipers on the rooftop, questions were raised in the aftermath over whether an attack would have been proportionate, given civilians were killed.
Continue reading...Hungarian parliament yet to sign off on application despite repeated promises not to hold up process alone
Viktor Orbán has said he will urge the Hungarian parliament to sign off on Sweden’s Nato bid “at the first possible opportunity”, as diplomats said Hungary’s allies were “exasperated” by the country’s foot-dragging.
Sweden applied to join Nato in May 2022, but its accession was delayed as Turkey and Hungary strung out the ratification process.
Continue reading...Vote leaves Hungary as only country still to ratify application made in response to Russian invasion of Ukraine
The Turkish parliament has given its long-awaited approval to Sweden’s membership of Nato, bringing the Nordic country significantly closer to joining the western military alliance after months in limbo.
Three months after Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, the Turkish president, submitted a bill on approving membership to parliament, MPs voted in favour of ratifying it late on Tuesday night.
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