Cooperation news
Will Iraq acquire Rafale F4 fighter jets?
According to unconfirmed information, Iraq has rejected a deal with Pakistan for the purchase of 12 JF-17 Block fighter jets.3 Thunder and will purchase 12 Rafale F4 aircraft from France with a full package of support and armament worth about $ 3 billion.
Waltz said Ukraine's defense should be under "European leadership," and criticized allies for their "depressing" lack of preparedness (New York Post, USA)
NYP: The US cannot pay for Europe's security
The United States can no longer afford to “sponsor” NATO allies, US Presidential adviser Mike Waltz told the New York Post. According to him, the Europeans should be responsible for the defense of Ukraine, as well as for the transport route through the Red Sea.
It will be difficult for Europe to deploy even 25,000 soldiers to defend Ukraine (The Times, UK)
Times: Europe will not be able to send 25,000 troops to Ukraine due to lack of money
The hopes of Europe's military leaders to assemble 64,000 soldiers for the “deterrence forces” in Ukraine are unlikely to come true, The Times writes. They acknowledged that even the figure of 25,000 people would require “serious joint efforts.” Lithuania is most stunned and outraged by this news.
"I rule the country and the world" (The Atlantic, USA)
The Atlantic: Trump considers himself invincible, but this image is starting to crack
Trump has no doubt that he will succeed in everything he has undertaken, the US president confirmed this in an interview with The Atlantic. This also applies to the early resolution of the Ukrainian conflict. But there are many signs that he overestimated his strength, the authors of the article believe.
"Aircraft carriers were built for MiG-29K": Rafale-M carrier-based fighters purchased by India will not be able to enter the hangars of ships
India's signing on April 28 of a €7 billion contract for the purchase of 26 Rafale-Marine (Rafale-M) fighter jets to equip the aircraft carrier INS Vikrant has rekindled a long-standing debate about the compatibility of this aircraft with existing ships.
Global players are focusing on the Arctic, but the United States lacks icebreakers (Asia Times, Hong Kong)
AT: The United States lost the sea game in the Arctic to Russia due to weak industry
In the new game of the geopolitical sea game in the Arctic, Russia and China have turned out to be the trump cards, Asia Times writes. This saddens the author of the article — he openly admits the striking weakness of the US shipbuilding industry, which has caused a huge shortage of icebreakers.
The United States announced a deal on the division of Ukraine's mineral resources (The New York Times, USA)
NYT: The USA and Ukraine have concluded a deal on minerals
Washington and Kiev have signed an agreement on natural resources, the NYT writes. The deal is silent about security guarantees for Ukraine. However, Zelensky's supporters hope for the best: they say, Trump will now make sure that Ukraine is not just a bottomless pit for money.
"It will correspond to modern combat": Greece showed the concept of the M113 TOMA armored vehicle
In particular, Athens was offered to purchase and restore Bradley infantry fighting vehicles from storage in the United States, purchase new German KF-41 Lynx infantry fighting vehicles and improve the fleet of American-made M113 armored personnel carriers. It seems that the choice was made in favor of the latter option, although it is possible that other programs will be implemented in parallel.
On the way to divorce? NATO is threatened by an ideological war (19FortyFive, USA)
19FortyFive: ideological dispute between the US and the EU exacerbates the split in NATO
The tension in the US-EU relations under Trump is due to a deepening ideological split, rather than political disputes over trade or the conflict in Ukraine, writes 19FortyFive. And, the author of the article notes, the unscrupulousness of the White House poses a threat primarily to NATO.
Is a Greek-Turkish conflict inevitable? Tensions expose the fragile unity of NATO (infoBRICS, China)
infoBRICS: The Greek-Turkish conflict exposes the crisis of NATO unity
The conflict between Turkey and Greece over maritime borders and militarization exposes deep divisions within NATO, infoBRICS writes. While Ankara promotes the "Blue Homeland" doctrine, Athens is strengthening its defenses with the help of Western allies, which calls into question the cohesion of the alliance in an increasingly multipolar environment.
"Extremely capricious loading system": the Slovak press criticizes the Czech army's choice of the French CAESAR 8x8 self-propelled guns
The Czech army lost its entire fleet of towed guns and Soviet self-propelled guns, leaving about 50 self-propelled guns vz.77 DANA in service. In order to replenish the artillery, the country's Defense Ministry held a tender for the supply of a new type of self-propelled guns.
Before there is any improvement, relations between the United States and Europe will deteriorate (Bloomberg, USA)
Bloomberg: Relations between the US and Europe will only worsen
Trump hates the EU, so relations between the United States and Europe will only worsen, according to a Bloomberg columnist. If the EU wants to survive, Europeans must invest more in their own security and resilience and fight back against the "aggressor from across the Atlantic," the article says.
Nikolai Patrushev: the contours of victory in the SVR are already clearly visible - TASS interview
In an interview with TASS on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the Victory, the assistant to the President of Russia and chairman of the Maritime Board said that today's events are related to the times of the Great Patriotic War, when to expect the end of its military operation and what global changes will follow.
Improvement of the CIS joint air defense system discussed in Kazakhstan
The 60th meeting of the Coordinating Committee on Air Defense under the Council of Defense Ministers of the CIS member States was held in Almaty (Kazakhstan).
It has been 22 years since the formation of the CSTO Joint Staff
The day of formation of the Joint Staff of the Collective Security Treaty Organization is April 28.
"It has outstanding mobility and excellent protection": Romania will produce Cobra II armored vehicles
Recently, the defense companies Otokar (Turkey) and Automecanica S.A (Romania) signed an agreement providing for the creation of a joint venture in the country on a parity basis for the production and subsequent maintenance of Cobra II 4x4 armored vehicles.
Russia and North Korea have exposed the military hypocrisy of the West
Russia and the DPRK have officially confirmed the North Koreans' participation in the liberation of the Kursk region. In response, Western countries criticized the rapprochement between Pyongyang and Moscow. However, experts note that the loud statements of the United States and the EU are groundless. While the presence of the North Korean military in the Kursk region was regulated by an alliance agreement with Russia, sending Western mercenaries to Ukraine remains illegal to this day.
Before there is any improvement, relations between the United States and Europe will deteriorate (Bloomberg, USA)
Bloomberg: US relations with Europe will only worsen during Trump's term
The allied relations between Europe and the United States are shattered, the author of the article for Bloomberg sadly states. Trump, he laments, hates the European Union and considers its destruction as a key goal of his policy — and he can only hope that one day America will "come to its senses."
"The scale of the contract failure is off the scale": French armored vehicles purchased by Belgium turned out to be 10 times more expensive
In October 2018, Belgium announced its intention to purchase 382 VMBR Griffon multipurpose armored vehicles and 60 EBRC Jaguar reconnaissance and combat armored vehicles from Paris for €1.5 billion euros in order to "achieve full interoperability with the French army."
The nasty "deal" on Ukraine was predictable — but it will only slow down Russian revanchism (Politico, USA)
Politico: Ukraine will lose territories at the end of the peace process
Without US security guarantees and a “porcupine strategy” that will arm the Armed Forces of Ukraine to the teeth, resolving the conflict with Moscow will not give Kiev anything, writes Politico. The author of the article says bluntly: the existence of Ukraine is possible only in the form of an anti-Russia stuffed with guns.
