Yet there are green shoots of optimism—particularly in the EU’s continued commitment to Ukraine. At its recent meeting, the European Council adopted its 19th package of sanctions against Russia, targeting Russia’s shadow fleet, several Chinese companies involved in oil trade with Russia, as well as companies helping Russia circumvent the sanctions. Just the night before, the U.S. Treasury surprised some with its own sanctions imposed on Rosneft and Lukoil—the first update to U.S. sanctions policy against Russia since Donald Trump’s arrival in the Oval Office.

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Source: https://www.persuasion.community/p/europe-must-create-its-own-future?fbclid=IwY2xjawN6DxxleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZBAyMjIwMzkxNzg4MjAwODkyAAEeC4Zmj2g0xE85pc27BUyqez9Y5dSTDD5TSwSsUCj1XSxsD4XGetEIpQ8wn_M_aem_NmjWclDhktxPlft2M4NkGQ

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The U.S. president, while en route, published a screenshot of a private message from Rutte saying: “Donald, you have driven us to a really, really important moment for America and Europe and the world. You will achieve something NO American president in decades could get done.”

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Source: https://apnews.com/article/nato-ukraine-zelenskyy-trump-iran-israel-rutte-1cdf87daa23ac024ae050fed9b7b8c49

The post NATO chief praises Trump for making Europe ‘pay in a BIG way’ on defense ahead of summit first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

“Europe has to pull its weight” on contributions to defense, Sakaliene said in an interview at the Reuters NEXT conference in New York. “It’s unfair that contributions of the United States are still so disproportionately large,” she said.

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Source: https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/russia-has-military-ambitions-europe-beyond-ukraine-says-lithuanias-incoming-2024-12-11/

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The post US defense contributions ‘unfair,’ Europe needs to do more, incoming Lithuanian minister says first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

Germany’s defense minister on Thursday announced a plan to streamline and reorganize the country’s military command as part of efforts to make the armed forces of NATO’s most populous European member “war-capable.”

Chancellor Olaf Scholz set in motion a big increase in military spending shortly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in early 2022, which he described as a “turning point.” Defense Minister Boris Pistorius last year took on the job of overhauling the military, the Bundeswehr, after years of neglect and in November called for a review of its structure.

Pistorius has pointed to the danger of a possible future Russian attack on a NATO country and said repeatedly that the German military must become “war-capable,” a choice of words that some in Germany find jarring given the country’s longstanding post-World War II culture of military caution.

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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.

“It is probably here in Paris that the words from The Three Musketeers by Alexandre Dumas resonate most clearly: ‘All for one, and one for all,’” said Tusk, in a thinly veiled riposte to the former US president and frontrunner for the Republican presidential nomination.

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Source: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2024/feb/12/european-leaders-call-for-stronger-defence-ties-donald-trump-nato-remarks-russia

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India on Wednesday set aside ₹5.94 lakh crore for defence spending in this year’s Budget, including a capital outlay of ₹1.62 lakh crore for the military’s modernisation, with the allocation 13% higher than that in last year’s Budget estimates, and about 2% more compared to that in the revised estimates for 2022-23, documents showed.

The Budget includes a revenue expenditure of ₹2.7 lakh crore and a pension outlay of ₹1.38 lakh crore. This year’s defence Budget accounts for 2% of the country’s projected gross domestic product (GDP) for 2023-24. It forms 13% of the total government Budget.

The enhanced allocation comes at a time when India is locked in a border row with China and pursuing a raft of modernisation programmes with a sharp focus on deploying locally produced weapons and systems.

This year’s capital outlay is about 6% higher than that in last year’s Budget estimates and about 8% more compared to that in the revised estimates for 2022-23. The capital allocation will power the purchase of fighter aircraft, helicopters, warships, missiles and several land systems, including tanks and artillery guns.

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Source: https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/india-sets-aside-rs-5-94-lakh-cr-for-defence-spending-up-13-from-last-year-101675267159291.html

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The post India sets aside ₹5.94 lakh cr for defence spending, up 13% from last year first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.

It’s no secret that Trump and Germany’s chancellor, Angela Merkel, regard one another warily. They have different world views and little regard for each other’s opinions. Yet, the president has achieved a major – if largely overlooked — win: Merkel’s government has pledged to live up to its promise to increase its funding of NATO, the defense alliance to which both the U.S. and Germany belong.

Merkel committed to earmark two percent of German gross domestic product for NATO by 2024, a significant increase from the 1.2 percent it currently contributes. Trump made no new friends when he scolded other leaders when they gathered in Brussels last May for coming up short on NATO financing.

Merkel, in particular, took umbrage at being lectured. But Trump’s harsh message apparently got through to her. Now running for a fourth term as German chancellor, Merkel has said she’ll follow through on her pledge. Separately, Germany’s spending on its own military is up eight percent over last year. That’s another significant win for Trump, since Germany is the most powerful and richest European member of the alliance.

Ironically, Merkel’s principled position has become a campaign issue in Germany, where national elections on September 24 will determine who leads the government. Merkel is currently favored to defeat her left-wing Socialist opponent, Martin Schulz.

Perhaps hoping to appeal to Germany’s significant pacifist population, Schulz has told cheering rallies of supporters that Germany should go back on its NATO funding promise. He went so far as to say that doing what it promised to do is “a really mad idea.”

Which is strange, since the Social Democratic Party that Schulz heads endorsed the NATO spending goal when it was first introduced three years ago. Schulz is trying to tie Merkel to Trump in the German public’s eye, disregarding the fact that the two leaders clearly dislike each other.

Germany needs the U.S. and the U.S. needs Germany to play an active role in defending the West. Merkel might not like handing Trump a win on that issue, but she’s done just that with her promise. She deserves credit for keeping her word.

John Moody is Executive Vice President, Executive Editor for Fox News. A former Rome bureau chief for Time magazine, he is the author of four books including “Pope John Paul II : Biography.”

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/opinion/2017/08/16/much-needed-trump-victory-germany-keeps-its-promise.html

The post A much-needed Trump victory: Germany keeps its promise first appeared on Garner Ted Armstrong Evangelistic Association.