The 50th Anniversary G7 Conference is in Alberta in mid-June so Canada and the Europeans should show a united front there. Japan will probably stay neutral unless they have been tariffed by then.
Justin will no longer be the Canadian PM so Trump can’t snub him by skipping the Conference. Trump may want to meet the new Canadian PM since it will probably be the Conservative Party’s Pierre Poilievre. Trump dined with Alberta’s Premier in Mar-a-Lago where she lobbied for an exemption from tariffs on oil.
I expect something like it will be discussed at Zelensky’s meeting with the EU people. It’s not a bad concept, but as always Trump’s framing made it look like a mob shakedown.
Remind me… I was just a teenager in 1992 when the USSR broke up and I was far more concerned about whether or not I’d look cute with bangs than world affairs. Didn’t the U.S. and others promise to come to Ukraine’s defense if they gave up their nukes?
Who were the “others”?
Was that agreement meant to be for all time or did it have some sort of sunset provision?
Were there other conditions on this? Like only that we’d use our nukes to defend them if they were subject to a nuclear attack? (Arguably hitting Chernobyl with a conventional missile should count as a nuclear attack, although that’s admittedly questionable.)
This summary should answer your questions? The Budapest Memorandum was breached in 2014 when Russia seized Crimea.
The Budapest Memorandum on Security Assurances, signed on December 5, 1994, by Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the United Kingdom, was a critical agreement in post-Soviet geopolitics. It formalized the process by which Ukraine surrendered the world’s third-largest nuclear arsenal, inherited after the Soviet Union’s collapse, which included approximately 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads. Although these weapons were stationed on Ukrainian territory, they were operationally controlled by Moscow, and Ukraine’s possession of such an arsenal posed significant concerns for global non-proliferation efforts. In return for surrendering the weapons, the signatory powers provided assurances of Ukraine’s sovereignty, territorial integrity, and independence. The memorandum guaranteed that no force or threats of force would be used against Ukraine, and no economic or political pressure would be employed to undermine its status. It also affirmed that the United Nations Security Council would intervene in case of aggression against Ukraine. However, the assurances were political commitments, not legally binding guarantees, which made their enforcement dependent on the goodwill of the signatories.strong text
Had hoped that European leaders might have hinted at a minerals deal with Ukraine to help fund their future defence there. Only way that Trump will offer a fair deal is if he fears losing it.
However, Europe does seem to be trying to wrest the negotiations away a bit from the US.
The main problem the EU has now is that Hungary (Orban) keeps blocking for Putin.
They will have to work around him, and this will take some time.
At this point however, suspending Hungary from the EU decision-making process should be on the table (this is possible as Hungary has not been compliant with EU laws)
