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Europe
France
2/20/2025 France and Britain, the only nuclear powers among the Europeans, have been drawing up plans for a ’reassurance’ force that could be deployed to Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire deal, a proposal that would require U.S. support. French President Macron convened a meeting Wednesday evening as part of his efforts to bring together a crisis coalition of sorts. It was the second urgent meeting this week at the Élysée presidential palace. Leaders of 19 countries, including European allies and Canada, joined mostly by video link. After the meeting, Macron outlined three conditions for a long-lasting and solid peace: Ukraine must be included, an agreement must have robust and credible guarantees, and Europe’s security concerns must be taken into account. ’We are convinced of the need to increase our defense and security spending and capabilities for Europe and each of our countries’, Macron said. Macron is due to visit Trump in Washington Monday, and will be followed by British Prime Minister Keir Starmer later in the week. Starmer called Zelensky yesterday to express support and said it was ’perfectly reasonable to suspend elections during wartime,’ according to the British prime minister’s office. Trump’s national security adviser Waltz, speaking at the White House briefing, said the president is “very frustrated” with Zelensky, referring to a deal that would give the United States a stake in Ukraine’s natural resources. “The fact that he hasn’t come to the table, that he hasn’t been willing to take this opportunity that we’ve offered,” Waltz said, adding that he hopes there will be an agreement “very soon.” Waltz also pushed back today against concerns that Ukraine was being shut out of negotiations over its own future. “We’ve had plenty of engagement and dialogue,” he said, adding that Kellogg “is literally there right now” and that the administration was consulting with European allies. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)
Poland
February 20, 2025 The Three Seas Initiative (3SI), championed by Polish president Duda, received strong support from President Trump during his first term. European leaders with strong American backing should articulate a fitting vision and strategy at the upcoming Three Seas Initiative Summit in Poland in April. Poland should engage the 3SI member states and the European Commission to announce a bold and expanded vision that serves both European and American interests by inviting Trump to the summit. 3SI is an opportune vehicle to realize the region’s growing import across Eurasia optimally. There are two key avenues for cementing 3SI as a European priority and advancing American interests. First, establish 3SI as the primary conduit for constructing military mobility corridors to buttress NATO’s forward posture along an expanded front from Finland to Romania. Central to this vision is improved road and rail connections that would link NATO’s front lines to the region’s economic hinterlands and the three key ports of Trieste on the Adriatic, Gdańsk on the Baltic, and Constanța on the Black Sea. This bolstered interconnectedness enhance deterrence against Russia. It would be indispensable to the reconstruction and security of a post-war Ukraine. Second, institute 3SI - in close coordination with the European Commission - as the primary launchpad for the European Global Gateway initiative. Trusted connectivity can be achieved. To the south, the Global Gateway-3SI region through Trieste connects to burgeoning Indo-Mediterranean trade driven by the world’s fastest-growing large economy, India, along with the Gulf states and Israel. A reinvigorated 3SI coupled with the India-Middle East-European Economic Corridor (IMEC) is well positioned to usher in a “New Golden Road” that can drive Indo-European trade and commerce to new heights in the twenty-first century. President Trump recently announced that he and Prime Minister Modi have “agreed to work together to help build one of the greatest trade routes running from India to Israel to Italy and onwards to the U.S. - connecting our partners, roads, railways and undersea cables.” To the east, the three sea regions connect with the Caucasus, Caspian Sea, and Central Asia, establishing a Central Asia-Caucasus-Europe Economic Corridor (CACE). The European Global Gateway project boasts subsea digital and power lines across the Black Sea to the Caucasus as one of its flagship projects. CACE stands to elevate freedom of navigation in the Black Sea and indemnify Ukrainian coastal integrity. To the north, the three-seas region connects to Baltic and Arctic NATO member states for greater coordination in advancing shared security and economic interests from the Gulf of Finland to the Gulf of Alaska. The upcoming 3SI Summit offers a propitious platform not only to expand 3SI’s vision but also to increase membership. 3SI should endeavor to include all major European littoral nations of the three seas, in particular Italy and Ukraine. The fifteen-member 3SI becomes an indispensable regional actor in shaping the future of European security and prosperity. The primary objective is to attract private institutional investors to infrastructure projects. Member states may consider a 3SI-NATO Fund with earmarked budgetary contributions to leverage matching private funds in constructing dual-use military mobility corridors. If optimally executed, the above strategy may transform Eastern Europe to a degree comparable to what the Marshall Plan achieved for Western Europe. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Arha, President of the Free & Open Indo-Pacific Forum and a Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Atlantic Council and the Krach Institute for Tech Diplomacy at Purdue; Debski, Professor of Strategy at the College of Europe in Natolin, Warsaw; Riisalo, former Minister of Economy and Technology of Estonia.
Ukraine
2/20/2025 Amid war of words, President Trump's envoy meets Zelensky today. Retired Lt. Gen. Kellogg, Trump’s envoy on the war in Ukraine arrived in Kyiv soon after Trump describing the Ukrainian president as failing and blaming him for Russia’s 2022 invasion of the country. Zelensky countered that Trump was repeating misinformation about him and the war. Ukraine is ready for a strong, truly beneficial agreement with the President of the United States on investments and security, Zelensky wrote on Telegram after the meeting. At the request of the American side, the format of the meeting was for a protocol photo op. (Source: MSN / The Washington Post = U.S.)
Feb 20, 2025 Pressured by Putin and Trump, walls close in on Zelensky. Outgunned Ukrainian forces have slowly lost territory to Russian troops over recent weeks. US President Trump described Zelensky as a corrupt "dictator" and claimed he was no longer Ukraine's legitimate leader. Zelensky accused Washington of helping Putin come out of isolation and said Trump was trapped in a Russian disinformation bubble. Zelensky, a former comedian, won accolades abroad and drew comparisons with Winston Churchill when he remained in Kyiv in February 2022. In Kyiv, the ground is shifting rapidly beneath Zelensky's feet. He called off an official visit to Saudi Arabia this week. The leader's problems mount at home. The 47-year-old has seen his approval ratings plummet. Old political rivalries are resurfacing. Zelensky’s decision last week to sanction former president Poroshenko sparked protests in parliament. Poroshenko described the move as a huge blow to internal unity. The mayor of Kyiv Klitschko - a long-standing rival of Zelensky - said the spat was harming both democracy and the country as a whole. A source in the Ukrainian presidency said there was no panic within Zelensky's office. Zaluzhny, the former head of the army tipped to be the favourite in any upcoming election, this week refused to rule out that he would stand in a presidential vote. (Source: Barron’s – U.S. / Agence France-Presse)
United Kingdom
Thursday 20 February 2025 A Downing Street spokesperson said Sir Keir Starmer spoke to Zelensky today evening to express support for him ’as Ukraine's democratically elected leader’. Zelensky was elected as president of Ukraine in May 2019. Previously scheduled to go ahead in 2024, elections were not held as a result of martial law being in place. /Video/ (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)
Thursday 20 February 2025 UK prime minister Sir Keir Starmer will reportedly present the peacekeeping plan agreed in Paris to US president Trump during a visit to Washington, D.C. next week, as he hopes to lead European efforts to influence the future settlement in Ukraine. He will push for US fighter jets and missiles to be on standby in eastern Europe to deter Russian forces from breaching any agreed terms. The plan will see troops stationed in Ukraine’s strategic cities, ports and nuclear power stations - but kept well away from the frontline. There would be a heavy emphasis on intelligence and surveillance capabilities, allowing European countries to send a smaller number of troops on the ground in Ukraine. But they would be backed up by a “US backstop”, which Sir Keir said was the “only way” to deter Putin from attacking again. The backstop may include US fighter jets in Romania and Poland, or a large multi-national land force stationed on Nato’s eastern borders ready to move into Ukraine if necessary to protect European troops. Downing Street hopes that Trump will be inclined to accept this proposal, largely as it does not involve having US troops stationed in Ukraine. (Source: Independent – United Kingdom)
Asia
Turkey
20.02.2025 At least 31 terrorists were "neutralized" in counterterrorism operations in northern Iraq and Syria over the past week. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
North America
United States
Feb. 20, 2025 Patel, a longtime loyalist to President Trump, was confirmed by the Senate today as director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. He previously worked on Capitol Hill and in the first Trump administration, after working as a federal prosecutor in Washington and a federal public defender in Florida. Patel is a firebrand who appeared on a broad array of conservative media shows and has spoken about his desire to "come after the people in the media." At his confirmation hearing on Jan. 30., he distanced himself from Trump's sweeping pardons of Capitol rioters, saying he disagreed with the commutations of individuals who assaulted law enforcement officers on Jan. 6. Democratic senators confronted Patel about his repeated contentions that the 2020 election was stolen. The final vote was 51-49. Since Trump took office a month ago, the head of the Washington Field Office - which oversaw the sprawling Jan. 6 probe - was forced out, as were six of the FBI’s most senior executives and multiple heads of FBI field offices around the country. The FBI ultimately handed over the names of FBI employees who worked on Jan. 6 cases as requested. Patel has a close relationship with a network of conservative former FBI agents who were pushed out over the past several years. It is predicted that Patel would do what needs to be done at the FBI, which is not just dismantle this agency from the top headquarters down to 56 FBI field offices, but also hold accountable those agents who have used their unaccountable power to weaponize the most powerful law enforcement agency in the country against the political foes of the regime. (Source: NBC News - U.S.)
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