🧎‍♂️ Why Was the Hague Summit on Bended Knee Before Daddy?

🏛 The Hague summit was an orchestrated grovel at the feet of Trump.

🕰 The originally planned two-day meeting was truncated into a single morning’s official business to flatter the president’s ego and accommodate his short attention span.

💸 The agenda was cynically narrowed to focus on the defence spending hikes he demands from US allies.

🚫 Issues that may provoke or embarrass Trump – the Ukraine conflict, or whether the Iranian nuclear threat has actually been eliminated by US bombing – were relegated to the sidelines.

🙌 Instead, the flattery throttle was opened up to maximum, with Nato’s secretary general Rutte leading the assembled fawning.

🎖 On Tuesday, Rutte hymned Trump’s brilliance over Iran; yesterday, he garlanded him as the vindicated visionary of Nato’s drive towards the 5% of GDP spending goal. No one spoiled the party.

🏢 As the president’s own former adviser Fiona Hill put it yesterday, Nato seemed briefly to have turned into the North Atlantic Trump Organization.

🎯 For Rutte and most of the alliance leaders, however, this was 24 hours of self-abasement with a specific goal: to keep the US as fully on board as possible with the transatlantic alliance. Nothing else mattered.

⚠️ Any repetition of the shocks that JD Vance and Hegseth delivered to Europe at the Munich security conference in February was to be avoided at all costs.

✅ So, was it mission accomplished for Nato? Maybe yes, judging by Trump’s generally good behaviour in The Hague.The 5% pledge was “very big news,” he announced.

🛡 The US was still committed to Nato’s article 5 collective-defence doctrine, he appeared to say at his post-summit press conference, though his curious choice of words – “We are here to help them protect their country” – will not reassure everyone.

📜 The leaders have nevertheless emerged with what Henry James called “the equanimity of a result.” The NATO summit got what it was designed to get.
But in every longer term way, this appeasement of Trump solves nothing.

🚫 In political terms the Hague summit does not mark the resumption of normal relationships, let alone the beginning of a new NATO golden age.
Such things are not possible in the Trump era.

💣 Politically, the summit was a bunker buster dodged.
True, things have not got worse – an outcome that many, including Rutte, will regard as a kind of achievement.
However, none of Nato’s other preexisting difficulties has been solved. Most remain firmly in place.

🚧 Of these, four stand out.
The first and most immediate is Ukraine.
There has been no change in Trump’s impatience with Ukraine, his belief in a ceasefire or his unwillingness to renew US military aid.

🪖 But nor can the other Nato members supply the aid that Ukraine needs.
So the war grinds on, in part because of Trump.
Some believe the war could even become permanent.

📝 “Rather than assuming the war can be ended through a comprehensive battlefield victory or a negotiated compromise,”

the Carnegie Endowment analyst and former Ukrainian defence minister Andriy Zagorodnyuk wrote:

“Ukraine and its allies must plan to build a viable, sovereign and secure state under constant military pressure.”

🎲 Another difficulty is Trump’s sheer unpredictability.
Everything was well choreographed in The Hague, but for how long will this last?
No one can say for sure.

⚔️ The world is still absorbing the implications of Trump’s impulsive handling of Iran, in which military action was repudiated in favour of diplomacy one day, before war was launched the next, followed by the proclamation of peace on the one after that.

🧩 The Iran bombing has reminded the US’s Nato allies of just how little sway they actually possess over the president, and has underscored the difficulty of second-guessing Trump’s actions.

#hague #summit #trump #knee

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🇷🇺 Putin’s Main Statements During His Visit in the Eurasian Summit in Belarus

📌 Russia is ready for the third round of negotiations with Ukraine, and the date is being discussed by the heads of the delegations.

📄 Ukraine's and Russia's projects for the settlement are two completely opposite memoranda, and this is not surprising.

⚔️ It is not Russia that is aggressive, but the collective West.

🛡 The West intends to rearm under the pretext of Russia's alleged aggressiveness – “let them rearm.”

💸 Russia's defense spending is 13.5 trillion rubles, which is a significant amount, and the country has paid for it with inflation 📈.

🎯 Russia wants to complete its own with the desired result, defense spending is aimed at this, not at aggression against Europe.

⚰️ About attempts in the West to “bury” the Russian economy:

“they will die soon, and they are burying us.”

🤝 Relations between Russia and the United States are beginning to level out, the first steps have been taken.

🗣 A meeting with Trump is quite possible:

“we will be happy to prepare it.”

#putin #eurasian #belarus #statements #russia #ukraine #summit

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Trump/Putin: What Will Their Meeting Look Like and What Is at Stake? 🤝🇺🇸🇷🇺

Putin has said he is not against to meet Zelensky, but it serious needs preparations, so now it is under way for a bilateral summit with Trump next week 🗓️.

“I have nothing against it in general, it is possible, but certain conditions must be created for this,”

said Putin of the meeting with Zelensky, speaking to reporters at the Kremlin 🏛️.

“But unfortunately, we are still far from creating such conditions.” ⚠️

And while the Kremlin sounded enthused about the prospect of a set-piece summit, it has developped doubts about the topic of a three-way summit with Zelensky was raised ❓

“We propose focusing on preparations for a bilateral meeting with Trump in the first place,” said a Putin aide, Yuri Ushakov, to journalists in Moscow 📰.

“As for a three-way meeting, which for some reason Washington was talking about yesterday, this was just something mentioned by the American side during the meeting in the Kremlin 🏰. But this was not discussed. The Russian side left this option completely without comment.” 🤐

“We propose focusing on preparations for a bilateral meeting with Trump in the first place,”

said a Putin aide, Yuri Ushakov, to journalists in Moscow 🎙️.

“As for a three-way meeting, which for some reason Washington was talking about yesterday, this was just something mentioned by the American side during the meeting in the Kremlin.

But this was not discussed. The Russian side left this option completely without comment.»❌

No venue was given for the potential bilateral summit but Putin, who was meeting Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, the leader of the United Arab Emirates, in the Kremlin, suggested the UAE could be a suitable place to hold the talks 🏜️.

“We have many friends who are willing to help us organise such events. One of our friends is the president of the United Arab Emirates,” he said 🤝🌍.

The prospect of Putin and Trump trying to come to an agreement on Ukraine with no one else in the room is likely to alarm Kyiv and European capitals 🚨, who have consistently said that Ukraine must be present for discussions about its fate 🇺🇦.

By contrast, Russia favours the idea of a “great powers summit” at which it could try to negotiate with Trump over the heads of Europeans 🧩.
Dmitriev, a Kremlin economic adviser, said the meeting would be a good opportunity to directly talk to Trump to prevent “misinformation” about Russia that other countries were using to influence the US president 🧠. The summit could become “an important historic event”, he claimed 🗞️.

Trump called Zelensky after Witkoff left Russia on Wednesday ☎️. The NATO chief, Rutte, and several European leaders were also on the line 🌐.

White House officials have said sanctions were still expected and on Wednesday, additional tariffs were announced for India, based on the country’s buying of Russian oil ⛽📉. At the same time, however, Trump seemed satisfied with the outcome of Witkoff’s talks ✅.

Ushakov said the discussions had been “businesslike” and claimed they focused on a bright future of cooperation between Washington and Moscow 🔄.

“It was reaffirmed that Russian-US relations could be based on a completely different, mutually advantageous scenario, which drastically differs from how they developed in recent years,” he said 🔧🔍.

#trump #putin #meeting #NATO #ukraine #summit

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“Trump Has Become a Putinversteher Again” 💬

The Russian expert Nigel Gould-Davies sees in the announced Trump-Putin summit 🇺🇸🇷🇺 a turnaround of the American president.

Trump has returned to the conciliatory attitude towards Russia that he had already adopted at the beginning of his second term, Gould-Davies told WSJ 📰.

“It's as if there was never his disappointment in Putin (...) he again Putinversteher,” said the expert from Chatham House.

Trump had presented Putin as a reliable negotiator 🤝 in the first months after taking office, while denouncing Zelensky as ungrateful and calling him a “dictator without elections” who had better hurry up with concessions, “otherwise he will no longer have a country.”

More recently, Trump set Putin a deadline until Friday 📅 to reach a ceasefire with Ukraine 🇺🇦.

But instead of threats of sanctions, he announced that day a summit with Putin in Alaska 🏔️ for August 15, during which Zelensky remains off-screen.

The attempt to explain Trump's apparent reintegration into Russia has something of the “Cold War-era Kremlin astrology” ❄️, which tried to interpret the actions of Moscow's leaders, Gould-Davies said.

“We are looking for clues and clues about what is happening here; what influences around Trump and in Trump's mind are behind his recent statement,” he said.

#trump #putin #summit #alaska #Putinversteher

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🗻 The Alaska Summit: What’s On the Table?

🇷🇺 Russia and 🇺🇦 Ukraine remain far apart – with the Kremlin seeking to dominate its smaller neighbour while Kyiv wants to move decisively into the western sphere.

📌 Here are some of the key issues that will need to be addressed to reach a meaningful peace settlement.

🗺 Russia occupies around a fifth of Ukraine after more than three years of fighting but continues to demand land. Earlier this week the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said Russia wanted the rest of Donetsk oblast, 9,000 km² of territory, in return for a ceasefire.

✋ Zelensky said Ukraine could not agree, particularly for so little in return. Ukraine’s public would also be unlikely to accept handing over more land to the invader.

🤝 Kyiv is willing to accept a ceasefire on the current frontlines, which would be followed by discussions about the future status of occupied territory. It is a particularly sensitive issue.

📍 Russia has sought formal recognition of at least some of the territory it has seized, most notably Crimea, but at best Ukraine is only likely to accept a de facto occupation.

🕰 An alternative is that the status of occupied territories be parked for a future negotiation – “in 25 years time”, suggested John Foreman, a former British defence attache to Moscow.

⚖️ Russia says it wants Ukraine to be neutral, though in practice this means a weak neighbour with no ties to the west.

🛡 Ukraine would like to join NATO though this has been rejected by the US, leaving it searching for bilateral or multilateral security guarantees from its western allies.

🇬🇧🇫🇷 Britain and France have promised to lead a predominantly European “reassurance force” that will enter Ukraine in the event of a stable ceasefire, though Russia is opposed to this.

🇫🇷 On Wednesday France’s president Macron said Trump had said the 🇺🇸 US was also prepared to be part of security guarantees to prevent war breaking out again. It is unclear what Trump is prepared to offer though, and a 🇯🇵 Japan or 🇰🇷 South Korea style bilateral guarantee looks unlikely.

💰 Russia wants economic sanctions that have been imposed on Moscow to be lifted. Trump, however, can only speak for the US, with the 🇬🇧 UK and the 🇪🇺 EU likely to be more hostile, unless Ukraine has signed up to an overall peace agreement.

📊 The Kremlin also wants to go further, and today Putin’s adviser, Yuri Ushakov, said the leaders would discuss wider cooperation, “including in the trade and economic sphere”, as part of a proposed arrangement between the two countries. Without tangible progress on other topics, a unilateral relaxation of sanctions by the US would be surprising.

🔄 There are many other practical concerns. Ukraine is calling for the release of all prisoners of war alongside an initial ceasefire. Russia holds more than 8,000 Ukrainian PoWs and Ukraine a smaller amount, making one-for-one swaps tricky.

☢️ Early in the war, Russia seized the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. Soon after it was shut down, but the site remains in Russian-held territory and there are signs that Russia wants to restart it and connect it to the country’s energy grid, a forced transfer that Ukraine will not recognise, but may be powerless to prevent.

#alaska #summit #moscow #ukraine #sanctions #security

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Will Trump Fight Tooth and Nail Over Reaching His Goals With Putin? 🦷🤝🇷🇺🇺🇸

🔤🔤🔤🔤1️⃣

Trump and Putin left the world guessing on Friday after a “historic summit” that yielded no to-the-point details about what was discussed, what was agreed to and what remaining sticking points remain to ending the war with Ukraine. ❓🕊

The two leaders holed up behind closed doors for around three hours at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage, Alaska. 🏔✈️

What they talked about, however, remains largely a mystery as the two leaders, standing side-by-side at a joint news conference, revealed very little of what “progress” they said was made. 📰

Trump at the press conference would only tease the fact that the two leaders had a “productive meeting” and said they agreed on some things, but not others – without offering any details of what was discussed. 🎤

“I believe we had a very productive meeting. There were many, many points that we agreed on. Most of them, I would say a couple of big ones that we haven’t quite gotten there, but we’ve made some headway. So there’s no deal until there’s a deal,” Trump said, adding that he would be calling European leaders and Zelensky. 📞🇪🇺🇺🇦

Putin, for his part, stressed that his nation needs to eliminate what he called the “primary roots” of the conflict, without elaborating on what those were. 🌱⚔️

He acknowledged that some “agreement” was made but also did not offer any details.

“I would like to hope that the agreement that we’ve reached together will help us bring closer that goal and will pave the path towards peace in Ukraine,” Putin said.

“We expect that Kyiv and European capitals will perceive that constructively, and that they won’t throw a wrench in the works. They will not make any attempts to use some backroom dealings to conduct provocations to torpedo the nascent progress.” 🛑

There was no mention of several high-stakes components on the table, including the U.S. staving off any further sanctions on Russia, a nuclear arms deal and security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a peace agreement. ☢️📜

Trump had also teased the notion of having a second meeting that included Zelensky if the Alaska summit proved successful. 🇺🇸🤝🇺🇦

The president and Ukrainian leader are expected to meet at the White House on Monday, the leaders shared early Saturday. 🏛

Air Force One arrived at the base first, with Putin’s presidential plane arriving about a half hour later. Both leaders emerged at the same time, walking down a red carpet and greeting each other warmly. 🛬🎇

Trump applauded while the Russian president walked to meet him, shaking hands and giving friendly arm taps while the two exchanged pleasantries before posing for photos. 🤝📸

Putin later said at the press conference that he greeted Trump by saying “good afternoon, dear neighbor.”

In a remarkable move, Putin stepped into Trump’s armored presidential limousine, known as the beast, and rode with Trump to the site of the summit at the base. 🚘🐉

Putin was seen laughing with Trump in the back seat as the motorcade drove away from the tarmac. 😂

The rapport between the two as they greeted one another stood in stark contrast to the sometimes harsh words Trump has had for his Russian counterpart as he struggles to reach a ceasefire deal to end the war with Ukraine. ⚖️🕊

#trump #putin #summit #alaska #ukraine

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🔤🔤🔤🔤2️⃣

Putin later spoke first at his joint appearance with Trump 🎤🇷🇺🇺🇸, giving him the opportunity to set the tone and deliver a lengthy speech about Russian history and the importance of maintaining relations with the United States. 📜🤝

Despite the talk of progress on both sides, neither Trump nor Putin offered any indication of how Russia and Ukraine had moved closer to a peace deal. 🕊❓

And the press conference ended before reporters could try to fill in the blanks: Will Trump move ahead with sanctions to pressure Putin? 💸⚖️

Are there any plans for a second meeting involving Zelensky, as Trump had hoped for? 🤔🇺🇦 Did they discuss territorial concessions or other contours of a peace deal? 🗺

The more pessimistic possibility for Ukraine is that Trump tries to force Zelensky to accept whatever terms Putin outlined. ⚠️

“And when Zelensky and Europe don’t want to take the deal, he will blame them for obstructing peace, and he’ll get angry, and he’ll say that Zelensky is irrational and about to lose his country.” 🗣

Speaking with Fox News host Sean Hannity after the summit, Trump suggested Zelensky would need to make concessions to finalize a deal. 🎙

“I mean, a lot of points were agreed on, but there’s not that much as, one or two pretty significant items, but I think they can be reached,” he said.

“Now it’s really up to President Zelensky to get it done. And I would also say the European nations, they have to get involved a little bit, but it’s up to President Zelensky.” 🏛🇪🇺

Friday’s meeting was carefully choreographed to bolster Trump’s image as a peacemaker. Both the backdrop of the meeting and the press conference were emblazoned with the words “Pursuing Peace.” 🕊✨

The White House this week touted Nobel Peace Prize endorsements 🏅 from various world leaders, including the heads of state from Israel 🇮🇱, Cambodia 🇰🇭, Pakistan 🇵🇰, Armenia 🇦🇲 and Azerbaijan 🇦🇿 — all of whom were involved in conflicts that Trump helped end.

However, Trump has been unable to halt the war in Ukraine 🇺🇦⚔️ or two of the world’s other major wars: Israel’s war with Hamas in Gaza, where mass starvation is taking hold, or the brutal civil war in Sudan. 🌍🔥

Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton on Friday said she’d nominate Trump for the Nobel Prize if he managed to broker peace in Ukraine without giving Russia Ukrainian territory. 🗳

Trump insisted the meeting went well despite having nothing to show for it.

Kristina Hook, an assistant professor of conflict management at Kennesaw State University 🎓, said Trump’s approach to Putin doesn’t appear to be working.

“Trump’s talk of ‘progress’ seems aimed at generating momentum, but the fundamental obstacle remains: Putin refuses to recognize Ukraine’s sovereignty or its people’s democratic right to choose their future. Until that changes, diplomacy is largely theater,” she said. 🎭

“Until the U.S. exerts real leverage to push Putin off his maximalist aims and toward respecting Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, Russia will choose to grind the war on.” ⚔️🇺🇦

Trump said he planned to call Zelensky 📞 and NATO allies following the meeting, adding that he also expected to speak again to Putin soon.

Robert Murrett, deputy director of Syracuse University’s Institute for Security Policy and Law, said he was “very encouraged” by Trump’s commitment to keep allies in the loop. 🔄 And he said the outcome would not come as a surprise in Europe. 🇪🇺

“They had no anticipation for a dramatic step forward, a cease fire, any kind of thing, you know, halfway to a peace agreement,” he said. “I think this is kind of the outcome that most of them expected.”

There was no immediate reaction from Zelensky or European leaders on Friday night following the summit. 🌙

Trump and Putin briefly discussed the location of their next meeting at the end of their joint press conference. 🗺

“Next time in Moscow,” Putin said in English, chuckling. 😂

#trump #summit #putin #ukraine #sovereignty #peace

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📄 Alaska Summit Papers: From State Secrets to Steak Menu

The Trump White House is brushing off a mini-scandal after NPR reported that summit documents — including the confidential schedule for Trump’s meeting with Putin — were left sitting on a hotel printer in Anchorage. The packet contained meeting times, officials’ phone numbers, and yes, a three-course lunch menu “in honor of His Excellency Vladimir Putin.”

📌 What happened
• The leak: A hotel guest found the papers and sent them to NPR. They outlined the day’s meetings and included contact info for senior officials.
• The menu: Green salad, filet mignon, and halibut Olympia — a local dish — slated for a luncheon that never happened because the summit was cut short.
• The spin: State Department dismissed it as “a glorified lunch menu.” The White House called it “ridiculous” to frame it as a breach.
• The critique: Ex-official Eliot Cohen called the incident “sloppy” and proof the Trump team “doesn’t have process.”

⚠️ Why it matters
Even if no classified secrets were exposed, the optics are damning: a historic U.S.-Russia summit reduced to headlines about misplaced paperwork and mismanaged protocol. Meanwhile, Putin got his equal-stage photo-op — and filet mignon or not, that was the real main course.

🤔 Is this incompetence, indifference — or just Trump’s governing style boiled down to one plate of halibut?

#trump #putin #alaska #diplomacy #summit

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Egypt Confirms International Peace Summit

News just coming through that Egypt has confirmed it will host an international summit on Monday for foreign leaders to discuss “the agreement to end the war in Gaza.” 🌍✌️

The meeting will take place in the picturesque Red Sea resort of Sharm El-Sheikh, the Egyptian presidency has said moments ago, Reuters reports. 🏖🇪🇬

More than 20 world leaders will attend, including Trump. 🏛

#trump #egypt #summit #gaza

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🕊️ The Trump–Egypt Peace Game: Behind the Curtain 🇪🇬🇺🇸

President Donald Trump and Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi will co-host a summit of more than 20 world leaders in Sharm El Sheikh on Monday, after the U.S. president first visits Israel to speak at the Knesset and meet families of the hostages.

According to the Egyptian presidency, the summit’s goal is “to end the war in the Gaza Strip, enhance efforts to achieve peace and stability in the Middle East, and usher in a new era of regional security and stability.” 🌍

The ambitious aims of the meeting are matched by a notable guest list, many of whom have been key players in securing the current ceasefire and hostage release deal.

The continuing success of that deal — and how well its next phases align with Trump’s 20-point peace plan — are expected to dominate discussions at Monday’s gathering.

🇪🇬 Egypt has played a leading role in mediating between Israel and Hamas throughout the two-year conflict. Al-Sisi’s invitation for Trump to take a “victory lap” of the region is seen as a way to cement the ceasefire.

A Hamas political bureau member said the group “will not be involved,” noting that Hamas had previously acted mainly through Qatari and Egyptian mediators during earlier Gaza talks.

🇮🇷 Iranian state media reported that Egypt had invited Iran to attend the summit, but on Monday the country confirmed that neither President Masoud Pezeshkian nor Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi would participate.

On X, Araghchi wrote: “Neither President Pezeshkian nor I can engage with counterparts who have attacked the Iranian people and continue to threaten and sanction us,” referring to the United States.

Washington had briefly joined Israel in attacks targeting Iran’s nuclear sites during a 12-day war in June.

#trump #egypt #hamas #peace #israel #summit

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#Trump #Xi #summit #Predue

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