WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested … Read more
PENTAGON — U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has called for NATO’s European members to increase their role in the defense of Europe as the United States focuses on defending the alliance’s Pacific flank. It is a move that he says will likely require European allies to significantly increase defense spending from 2% of GDP … Read more
Trump said that it was a mistake for Moscow to be expelled from the group. Washington: U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would love to have Russia return to the Group of Seven nations, saying it was a mistake for Moscow to be expelled. Russia had been a member of the G7 club … Read more
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Thursday that his country would not accept any agreement on its fate decided bilaterally by Russia and the United States on how to end Moscow’s three-year war on Ukraine without Kyiv’s involvement. “We, as an independent country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Zelenskyy told … Read more
Ukraine and the United States are considering a crucial minerals deal at this week’s Munich Security Conference, according to officials from the two countries. After meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent described the proposed agreement as a potential “long-term security shield” for Ukraine when its war with Russia comes to … Read more
Hundreds of world leaders and delegates are set to attend the Munich Security Conference this weekend — with conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East, and simmering tensions in the Indo-Pacific, on the agenda. As Henry Ridgwell reports, all eyes will be on the approach of the U.S. delegation under the new administration of President … Read more
Following a successful prisoner swap with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump launched a multifront diplomatic blitz Wednesday to end the Ukraine conflict, saying he would meet with Russia’s leader soon and dispatching a vice president-led team to meet with Ukraine’s leader on Friday. VOA White House correspondent Anita Powell catches up on the latest, from … Read more
U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told NATO military allies on Wednesday that Ukraine’s hoped-for return to its 2014 borders is an “unrealistic objective,” and that the United States does not believe that Kyiv membership in NATO is a “realistic outcome” of a negotiated end to Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine. Speaking in Brussels at NATO … Read more
President Donald Trump announced Wednesday he and Russia’s leader agreed in a phone call to “immediately” begin negotiations with Ukraine’s leader to bring an end to the nearly three-year-conflict. “We will begin by calling President Zelenskyy, of Ukraine, to inform him of the conversation, something which I will be doing right now,” Trump said on … Read more
Moscow: Russia on Wednesday rejected swapping occupied territory with Kyiv as part of any future peace deal hours after launching a barrage of drones and missiles on Kyiv that killed one person. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who had floated the idea of exchanging occupied land, said the latest strikes showed the Kremlin was not interested … Read more
On Jan. 27, Andrey Isayev, a member of Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of parliament), accused U.S. President Donald Trump of trying to “rudely” force Russian President Vladimir Putin to start peace negotiations with Ukraine. Speaking on the primetime show 60 Minutes on Rossia-1, the country’s most-watched state-owned TV channel, Isayev said Trump reminded … Read more
Some of the 300 Russian fishermen stranded on an ice floe drifting in the Sea of Okhotsk in the Western Pacific have refused evacuation, Russia’s emergency ministry said on Wednesday. A rescue operation with helicopters and vessels has brought 109 of the fishermen ashore, but some refused to be rescued, the ministry said in a … Read more