US designates 18 countries at risk of Russian aggression

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken announced a new $2.2 billion foreign military financing package for Ukraine and 18 other countries deemed at risk of future Russian aggression. An official earlier said the package would be worth $2 billions.

Approximately $1 billion would be allocated to Ukraine, an official said. The rest would be divided among Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia.

The money is intended to defend sovereignty, modernize security forces, enhance partnerships with transatlantic military alliance NATO, and strengthen capacity "to counter Russian influence and aggression," the official said by email. The aid comes in the form of U.S. grants and loans that enable countries to purchase weapons and defence equipment made in the United States. 

Notice the lack of Belarus (who is already into Russia's orbit), plus Hungary and Serbia who are turning from rivals into regional partners in light of their common anti-West and pro-Russian stances.

 

[RAMROD 117,983]

Older brother giving out a helping hand again. 

Did wealthy aunt, EU, give any money to these countries at all? 

[Better Day 5,766]

I’m so glad the UK is a part of NATO because it prevents a war in Europe which would be devastating. I’m in favour of any action being taking to prevent war and that includes nuclear warheads even sitting in Helensburgh. 

[Gabi001 2,470]

3 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Older brother giving out a helping hand again. 

Did wealthy aunt, EU, give any money to these countries at all? 

Thanks to EU GDP of my country trippled since we entered. We are also able to give our old soviet weapons to Ukraine and EU will buy us new wester weapons. We are getting 6,5 billion EUR from EU to recover our economy from covid, etc... So wealthy aunt is doing her job and we love her 

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6 minutes ago, RAMROD said:

Older brother giving out a helping hand again. 

Did wealthy aunt, EU, give any money to these countries at all? 

EU does give money to its Eastern European members and even countries like Serbia. But France and Germany are unreliable strategical parteners. EU is not even a military organisation in an explicit sense to begin with, if one country in the EU gets attacked it will likely only receive weapons to defend itself like Ukraine.

[RAMROD 117,983]

1 minute ago, Gabi001 said:

Thanks to EU GDP of my country trippled since we entered. We are also able to give our old soviet weapons to Ukraine and EU will buy us new wester weapons. We are getting 6,5 billion EUR from EU to recover our economy from covid, etc... So wealthy aunt is doing her job and we love her 

 

1 minute ago, FfFfFfFF said:

EU does give money to its Eastern European members and even countries like Serbia. But France and Germany are unreliable strategical parteners. EU is not even a military organisation in an explicit sense to begin with, if one country in the EU gets attacked it will likely only receive weapons to defend itself like Ukraine.

 

 

Thank you, that is reassuring

Working together to help when it is needed

[Benji 20,113]

10 minutes ago, Miss Dolly said:

I’m so glad the UK is a part of NATO because it prevents a war in Europe which would be devastating. I’m in favour of any action being taking to prevent war and that includes nuclear warheads even sitting in Helensburgh. 

I’m in total agreement to this.  To get super political for a moment, this was my biggest grievance with Corbyn.  His anti-war stance bordered on dangerous with wanting to disarm the UK of its nukes.  I don’t like them and wish we didn’t need them but we do.  If everyone in Europe disarmed themselves and Trump was in the White House, this war could be way more catastrophic for Europe.

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13 minutes ago, Benji said:

disarm the UK of its nukes.  I don’t like them and wish we didn’t need them but we do.  If everyone in Europe disarmed themselves and Trump was in the White House, this war could be way more catastrophic for Europe.

This is such a phantasy, out-of-touch idea in all senses of the word. Who would think the US, China, North Korea, Pakistan etc will just hand over their nukes like it's nothing (it's either they all do it, or no one does it because if a single one of them keeps them it could then blackmail the entire world. And it's either they give up 100% of every nuke that there is or it's worthless - also to keep in mind we don't fully know how many nukes there are and where and who has them.) If anything the nukes could end up in the hands of the elites and influentials businessmen all over the world, which is even more scarry than being in the hands of the governments.

[Benji 20,113]

Just now, FfFfFfFF said:

This is such a phantasy, out-of-touch idea in all senses of the word. Who would think the US, China, North Korea, Pakistan etc will just hand over their nukes like it's nothing (it's either they all do it, or no one does it because if a single one of them keeps them it could then blackmail the entire world. And it's either they give up 100% of every nuke that there is or it's worthless - also to keep in mind we don't fully know how many nukes there are and where and who has them.) If anything the nukes could end up in the hands of the elites and influentials business all over the world, which is even more scarry than being in the hands of the governments.

Yeah, it’s a scary approach.  I get the idea behind it, someone has to start but you’re basically relying on everyone else in the world to do the same which isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

[Better Day 5,766]

16 minutes ago, Benji said:

I’m in total agreement to this.  To get super political for a moment, this was my biggest grievance with Corbyn.  His anti-war stance bordered on dangerous with wanting to disarm the UK of its nukes.  I don’t like them and wish we didn’t need them but we do.  If everyone in Europe disarmed themselves and Trump was in the White House, this war could be way more catastrophic for Europe.

That is my problem with left to far left politicians is the anti-NATO stance, including the SNP. I used to be on the stance that we should scrap nuclear warheads but unfortunately we don’t live in that world. I just dread if Trump wins in 2024 and NATO loses the US

[Meat 18,962]

24 minutes ago, Gabi001 said:

Thanks to EU GDP of my country trippled since we entered. We are also able to give our old soviet weapons to Ukraine and EU will buy us new wester weapons. We are getting 6,5 billion EUR from EU to recover our economy from covid, etc... So wealthy aunt is doing her job and we love her 

Ursula von der Leyen keeps slaying 

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Just now, Benji said:

Yeah, it’s a scary approach.  I get the idea behind it, someone has to start but you’re basically relying on everyone else in the world to do the same which isn’t going to happen anytime soon.

Exactly. One country could keep just 1 nuke secretly as it watches everybody disarm and then it will do whatever it wants on the world stage. The status-quo of today is not great, but what can we do? We can pretent idealistically that all countries simply want the best in the world and if one country misbehaves it's because of a historical wrongdoing and not because of malicious intent, but we would soon receive a rude awakening.

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5 minutes ago, Miss Dolly said:

I just dread if Trump wins in 2024 and NATO loses the US

China and Russia are waiting for the moment the US descends into civil war. The world order cannot exist in this shape without the security guaranties of US, if US is troubled at home, then the entire international security architecture will simply collaps. This is scarry because the US seems more and more likely to have a civil war, and immediately as this happens China will try to take over Taiwan and Russia will roll in into Europe.

[Benji 20,113]

4 minutes ago, FfFfFfFF said:

China and Russia are waiting for the moment the US descends into civil war. The world order cannot exist in this shape without the security guaranties of US, if US is troubled at home, then the entire international security architecture will simply collaps. This is scarry because the US seems more and more likely to have a civil war, and immediately as this happens China will try to take over Taiwan and Russia will roll in into Europe.

I think this situation is very much playing on Europe’s mind.  Where a lot of countries were hesitant to beef up EU defence, they’re now being swayed to start.  I think once the situation in Ukraine has settled down some, Europe will begin a transition into a stronger military power so it can defend itself and wider territory more successfully.

[pachinko 10,765]

Why are we giving away money?