 "'Trump's call to Putin not a betrayal of Ukraine': Hegseth says Russian invasion was 'factory reset' for Nato")
US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth on Thursday said that President Donald Trump’s possible meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is not a “betrayal” to Ukraine.
Talking to reporters before the Nato defence ministers meeting in Brussels, Hegseth was asked if Washington’s push to hold a meeting with Putin amounts to a betrayal of Ukraine to which he said, “That is your language, not mine. Certainly not a betrayal. There is no betrayal; there is a recognition that the whole world and the US is invested in peace, in a negotiated peace.”
Earlier today, China floated the idea of hosting Trump and Putin to discuss ways to end the Russia-Ukraine war. According to a report by the Wall Street Journal, Chinese officials have reached out to the Trump administration with a proposal to hold a summit between the two countries’ leaders and facilitate the process of negotiating a ceasefire deal.
Hegseth further said that the ongoing Russia-Ukraine war is “a factory reset for Nato” and “a moment of realisation that this alliance needs to be robust, strong, and real.”
“That is why President Trump has called for increased defence spending across the board for Nato, for European countries to recognise this is an urgent, real threat to the continent and this aggression needs to be a wake-up call,” the defence secretary added.
The development comes days after the US president talked with Putin on the phone where he said that the latter “wants to see people stop dying”. After their supposed phone call, POTUS expressed optimism over the war’s end and said that the US was making progress with Moscow.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsTrump said Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy had expressed a desire for peace in separate phone calls with him on Wednesday, and Trump had ordered top U.S. officials to begin talks on ending the war in Ukraine.
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