
Ukraine’s future in sharp focus as leaders meet after Trump-Putin call
Global News
The future of Ukraine is the top item on the agenda at the Munich Security Conference after a call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week.
The future of Ukraine is the top item on the agenda at the Munich Security Conference following a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, when they pledged to work together to end the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance hammered home the U.S. demand that the NATO alliance step up defence spending on Friday, ahead of a security meeting in Europe at a time of intense concern and uncertainty over the Trump administration’s foreign policy.
Vance is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later Friday for talks that many observers, particularly in Europe, hope will shed at least some light on Trump’s ideas for a negotiated settlement to the war.
Vance started his day in Munich meeting separately with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and British foreign secretary David Lammy.
He used the engagements to reiterate the Republican Trump administration’s call for NATO members to spend more on defence. Currently, 23 of NATO’s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance’s target of spending two per cent of the nation’s GDP on defence.
“NATO is a very important military alliance, of course, that we’re the most significant part of,” Vance told Rutte.
“But we want to make sure that NATO is actually built for the future, and we think a big part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia.”
Rutte said he agreed that Europe needs to step up.













