21 Feb 2025

Hegseth Upends USA-Europe Relationship

by Bonnie | | 0

Newly confirmed Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth used his speech in Brussels at a Ukraine Defence Contact Group to shatter USA-Europe unity against Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

His speech held three main points:

Ukraine’s territorial integrity is an “unrealistic objective” and Ukraine should give up at least some of the territory Russia has taken
The USA does not support Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO
The USA only has the resources to focus on one arena at a time (an assertion experts find absurd), and its global priorities no longer include Europe, swinging instead to focus on its own borders and on China

After the Soviet Union collapsed, Ukraine held about one third of its nuclear weapons. It gave them up in return for some money and, most importantly, security guarantees. Hegseth’s speech announced that the USA reneges on its portion of those guarantees.

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