World Focus from Brussels
The World Focus from Brussels podcast covers international politics, defence, security, culture and anything else of global interest. Policy analyst and reporter Sveinn Helgason dives into the latest on the international scene, speaking with experts and all sorts of people. In a challenging security environment it has never been as important to understand the world we live in, listening to top experts analysis. World Focus from Brussels gets to the heart of the matter, wherever an interesting story needs to be told and provides the necessary background. You can find World Focus from Brussels on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts.
World Focus from Brussels
A New Munich Moment for the World - NATO Ukraine Trump and Putin - News analysis
The Munich Security Conference started today 14 February in Germany, two days after US President Donald Trump pushed for peace in Ukraine by talking to Russian President Vladimir Putin in a 90 minutes phone call. In Brussels US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth told NATO Allies and Partners supporting Ukraine, that it is unrealistic to return to the prewar borders from 2014 between Ukraine and Russia. He added that Ukraine’s membership in NATO would not be included in security guarantees for the country. This contradicts the pledge by NATO leaders at the Washington Summit from 2024 that Ukraine was on an "irreversible path” to membership. The meeting of NATO Defence Ministers in Brussels on 13 February is the main focus of this episode but we also hear what Óskar Hallgrímsson, a war reporter who lives in Kyiv, thinks about the latest developments.
This is indeed a new Munich moment, 18 years after Vladimir Putin addressed this major security conference in the German city saying it was time to "seriously think of the architecture of global security," The question is: Will Putin call the shots in a new age of strong man geopolitics? Or are European Allies, Canada, the US and NATO partners able and willing to defend the rules based international order, based on freedom and sovereignty of each nation.