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Europe
Germany
(Sunday), 23.02.2025 Germany’s Merz 'rules out' coalition with 'far-right' AfD after declaring victory in parliamentary elections today. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
European Council
23.02.2025 European Council President Costa announced today that European Union leaders will convene for a special summit on March 6 to address the ongoing war in Ukraine and broader European security concerns. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Ukraine
February 23, 2025 From Trump’s perspective, this is a Biden war that has already been lost. "And politically, it’s much easier for Trump to seek peace than his European counterparts because he campaigned on an anti-war message, repeatedly blaming Biden for the war and saying it would never have happened if he were president". Trump wants to find a quick fix and move on. If it fails, he can wash his hands of it and let the Europeans deal with it. Europe 'clearly doesn’t know what to do now': it can’t accept defeat, but neither can it pretend that Ukraine can win the war without US support. 'Europe’s war strategy is in tatters'. On current trends, it would take Russia until the end of the year to capture the rest of the eastern province of Donbas, without which an end to the war is unlikely anyway. (Source: The Conversation - Melbourne, Victoria, Australia)
(23 February 2025) If you need me to leave this chair, I am ready to do that. And I also can exchange it 'for Nato membership' for Ukraine, Zelenskyy said in response to a question during a news conference. (Source: BBC - United Kingdom)
Europe
February 23, 2025 Global leaders tend to speak of Europe the same way they speak of Russia, China, and other nations. However, to state the obvious, Europe is not a nation. It’s a collective that, on multinational matters, works through multilateral institutions, most prominently NATO and the European Union. Those institutions require consensus before acting and, not surprisingly, often struggle to find it. ’What has tended to force consensus and maintain European unity, especially at key moments of international crisis, is American leadership’. This remains the case today. Lest anyone doubt the importance of U.S. leadership, compare the Western response to Putin’s invasion and annexation of Crimea in 2014 to the Western response to his invasion of Ukraine in 2022. For the former, President Obama chose not to send arms to Kyiv, imposed only minor sanctions on Russian individuals and private institutions, and largely eschewed diplomatic efforts to end the war. Despite its concern over Putin’s continental aggression, Europe did not come together to take bolder action on its own. In the end, the West came to accept Russia’s seizure of Crimea (if not officially). For the latter, President Biden chose to oppose Putin’s invasion forcefully, crafted a broad coalition of Western nations to coordinate a comprehensive strategy, and worked closely with those nations to provide increasingly lethal arms to Kyiv and impose increasingly tough sanctions on Moscow. It is only because of those U.S.-led actions that, to date, Ukraine has rebuffed Russia’s attempted conquest. Now, Trump and his team are calling for a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement, acceptance of Crimea as a part of Russia, no Ukrainian membership in NATO, and security guarantees for Ukraine that are backed by European and non-European - but not American - troops. Trump is urging NATO members to boost their defense spending to 5 percent of their gross domestic product, though NATO’s benchmark is 2 percent and Washington itself spends only about 3 percent. Will Europe, acting on its own after a peace agreement that it played no role in shaping, step up forcefully enough to deter Russia from resuming its war against Ukraine? ’This seems like an awfully risky wager for the new team in Washington to make. (Source: The National Interest - U.S.)
by Haas, a senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council and the author of, among other books, Harry and Arthur: Truman, Vandenberg, and the Partnership That Created the Free World.
Asia
Iraq
February 23, 2025 Prime Minister Sudani stressed the urgency of restarting oil production and exports within a week with a target of 300,000 barrels per day through the state-owned SOMO company, during a meeting with Kurdistan Region President Barzani. His statement followed a Reuters report claiming the administration of US President Trump was pressuring Baghdad to resume Kurdistan’s oil exports or face sanctions alongside Iran. The suspension of oil exports from Kurdistan and Kirkuk since March 2023 has cost Iraq over $17 billion. (Source: Asharq Al-Awsat, heardquartered in London, United Kingdom, supported by the Saudi government)
Lebanon
(Sunday), 23/02/2025 Mourners dressed in black, some waving Hezbollah flags or clutching portraits of the group's slain leader Nasrallah, gathered in their thousands to attend his funeral today in a stadium on the outskirts of Beirut. (Source: France 24)
North America
United States
23.02.2025 US President Trump on Sunday praised German Christian Democrats' election victory, calling it a "great day for Germany and the US." "Much like the US, the people of Germany got tired of the no common sense agenda, especially on energy and immigration, that has prevailed for so many years," Trump said on X. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
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