European Union

The EU is testing a new kind of war finance: using frozen sovereign assets without full confiscation. - Approved €105B loan via market borrowing; rejected frozen-asset backing after Belgian opposition

Since early December 2025, the war has featured intensified winter ground operations in Kharkiv and Donetsk alongside massive drone and missile campaigns targeting each side's war economies. Russia's February 16-17 barrage of 425 drones and 29 missiles coincided with Geneva trilateral talks that concluded February 18 with limited military progress but no political breakthroughs on territorial compromises or security guarantees—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy deemed outcomes 'not sufficient' and called for a follow-up meeting later in February. Ukraine responded with deep strikes, including the February 21 hit on Votkinsk missile plant 1,300 km inside Russia using indigenous cruise missiles, while reporting marginal advances in central Kupyansk as of February 19.

Updated 7 days ago

The EU's collective response to Trump's Greenland threats demonstrated rare transatlantic crisis management against a NATO ally. - Convened emergency summit January 23, unified in backing Denmark's sovereignty while remaining 'extremely vigilant'

President Trump's dramatic January 21 reversal—withdrawing tariff threats and ruling out military force after announcing a "framework" with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte—defused an unprecedented crisis within the Atlantic alliance. The framework centers on Arctic security cooperation, U.S. access to Greenland's rare earth minerals (the world's eighth-largest reserves at 1.5 million metric tons), and deployment of Trump's proposed "Golden Dome" missile defense system—a $175-831 billion multilayered shield against hypersonic threats. NATO clarified Rutte "did not propose any compromise to sovereignty," framing the deal as collective efforts to prevent Russian or Chinese Arctic footholds. By January 29, Secretary of State Rubio announced technical talks through the agreed working group had begun, calling them "a regular process" and expressing optimism: "We've got a little bit of work to do, but I think we're going to wind up in a good place."

Updated Jan 30

Political and economic union of 27 European member states pursuing common foreign and security policy. - Expanding Indo-Pacific security partnerships

India and the European Union became strategic partners in 2004. Twenty-one years later, at the 16th EU-India Summit on January 27, 2026, they signed a Security and Defence Partnership that makes India the third Asian country—after Japan and South Korea—to gain formal access to European defence initiatives. The two sides also concluded negotiations on a historic free trade agreement covering 2 billion people and representing a combined market of $27 trillion. Once the FTA completes legal vetting and enters force in 2027, Indian firms will be able to participate in the EU's €150 billion SAFE rearmament programme.

Updated Jan 30

The 27-member political and economic union mobilizing coordinated response to Trump's Greenland tariff ultimatum. - Convening extraordinary European Council meeting, preparing Anti-Coercion Instrument deployment

The United States has operated military bases in Greenland since 1941, under agreements with Denmark. On January 15, 2026, NATO allies deployed troops to the island to counter U.S. pressure after American-Danish talks collapsed. On January 17, President Trump announced 10% tariffs on eight European countries—Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the United Kingdom—rising to 25% by June unless 'a deal is reached for the Complete and Total purchase of Greenland.' On January 20, Trump declared on Truth Social that 'there can be no going back' on Greenland, calling it 'imperative for National and World Security.' That same day, Denmark deployed its Army Chief, General Peter Boysen, alongside 58 additional troops to Greenland, bringing total Danish military presence to approximately 178 personnel for Operation Arctic Endurance.

Updated Jan 21

Political and economic union of 27 European member states coordinating a unified response to Trump's Greenland-related tariffs. - Considering activating Anti-Coercion Instrument for first time; France leading hardline response to US tariffs

For 55 years, the World Economic Forum at Davos served as neutral ground where adversaries could broker deals and rivals could find common cause. This year, 65 heads of state and nearly 3,000 leaders are arriving to find that ground shifting beneath them—with President Trump announcing 10% tariffs on eight European allies just 48 hours before the summit opened, escalating to 25% by June unless Denmark agrees to sell Greenland. By January 20, the crisis had intensified as France pushed the EU to activate its never-before-used 'Anti-Coercion Instrument'—a trade bazooka that could shut American companies out of Europe's 500-million-consumer market.

Updated Jan 20

The EU provides major financial and military support to Ukraine and is pushing for a settlement that upholds European security principles and avoids rewarding aggression. - Leading security guarantee architecture through Coalition of the Willing; France and UK committed to troop deployments and military hubs to enforce any ceasefire

By late December 2025, months of intensive U.S.–Ukraine–Russia shuttle diplomacy produced a breakthrough: the controversial 28‑point plan that had alarmed Kyiv and European allies was replaced by a revised 20‑point framework that President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said was "90 percent agreed" with Washington, including "100 percent" consensus on U.S.–Ukraine security guarantees. The new framework—hammered out through parallel Miami sessions with Ukrainian officials led by Rustem Umerov and Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, then refined in a December 28 Mar‑a‑Lago summit between Trump and Zelenskyy—offers Ukraine NATO Article 5‑style security guarantees for at least 15 years, maintains Ukraine's 800,000‑strong military, and envisions a demilitarized zone along current battle lines in Donetsk overseen by international monitors. On January 8, 2026, Zelenskyy announced that the bilateral U.S.–Ukraine security guarantee document is now "essentially ready" to be finalized at the highest level with President Trump.

Updated Jan 11

The European Union is a political and economic union of 27 member states that is criticized in the NSS for migration policies, regulatory approaches, and alleged speech restrictions. - Target of U.S. criticism and locus of political backlash

On December 5, 2025, the Trump administration released a 33‑page National Security Strategy (NSS) that formally revives a 19th‑century idea of the Western Hemisphere as a U.S. sphere of influence, declaring a Trump Corollary to the Monroe Doctrine and promising to reassert American preeminence across the Americas. The document codifies a shift already visible in 2025 military operations: air and missile strikes on alleged drug‑trafficking boats in the Caribbean and eastern Pacific that had killed at least 115 people in 35 strikes by year‑end, the designation of major cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, and naval deployments around Venezuela. This campaign, formally named Operation Southern Spear on November 13, 2025, culminated on January 3, 2026, when U.S. forces launched Operation Absolute Resolve, a large‑scale military strike on Caracas that captured President Nicolás Maduro and his wife, placing them in U.S. custody on narco‑terrorism charges—the first forcible regime change under the Trump Corollary.

Updated Jan 4

Bloc that funds Czech development and Ukraine aid, now confronting another skeptical government inside its ranks. - Faces potential new spoiler government in key member state

Andrej Babiš just pulled off the comeback everyone said was over. Four years after losing power and then a presidential race to pro‑Western ex‑general Petr Pavel, the billionaire populist is back as Czech prime minister, sworn in on December 9, 2025, atop a majority coalition with the far‑right SPD and the anti‑green Motorists for Themselves party.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

A political and economic union of 27 European states, many of them NATO members and leading supporters of Ukraine. - Primary target of criticism in the 2025 U.S. strategy and key stakeholder in Ukraine’s fate

In early December 2025, the Trump administration published a new U.S. National Security Strategy (NSS) that formally abandons the long‑standing framing of Russia as a primary threat and instead emphasizes a doctrine of “flexible realism.” The document calls for reviving the Monroe Doctrine in the Western Hemisphere, ending the perception of NATO as a perpetually expanding alliance, and making it a core U.S. interest to negotiate an end to the war in Ukraine while re‑establishing strategic stability with Moscow. Within days, the Kremlin offered rare public praise, saying the strategy “corresponds in many ways” with Russia’s own worldview and welcoming the shift away from treating Russia as a direct adversary.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

The EU is a 27‑member political and economic union that holds exclusive competence over trade policy, including tariffs and trade defence investigations. - Using trade defence tools and economic security doctrine to confront China’s market distortions

French President Emmanuel Macron’s December 2025 warning that Europe could slap U.S.-style tariffs on Chinese goods if Beijing fails to curb its ballooning trade surplus with the EU marks a sharp escalation in Europe’s pushback against China’s export‑heavy model. In an interview after his state visit to China, Macron argued that China’s surplus is “killing” its European customers and framed the issue as a “life or death” struggle for EU industry, especially autos and advanced manufacturing.

Updated Dec 11, 2025

European governments back Ukraine militarily and financially while seeking a peace deal that does not legitimize Russian conquest or weaken European security. - Supporters of Ukraine pushing back on U.S. plan and promoting a more protective counter-proposal

In late 2025, the Trump administration’s drive to broker an end to Russia’s full-scale war in Ukraine entered a decisive phase. U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg said a peace deal was “really, really close,” with only two core disputes left: the fate of the Donbas region—especially the remaining Ukrainian‑held parts of Donetsk—and the future of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, Europe’s largest. Kellogg estimated over 2 million combined Russian and Ukrainian casualties since Russia’s 2022 invasion, as Moscow now holds roughly 19% of Ukraine’s territory, including Crimea and most of Donbas.

Updated Dec 11, 2025