Section: European Voice (EU)
Putin snubs Tillerson but has time for Italian president
Russian President Vladimir Putin was apparently too busy Tuesday to meet U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson but found time to meet Italian president Sergio Mattarella in Moscow, Italian media reported. Tillerson, America’s top diplomat, came to the Russian capital Tuesday afternoon for meetings with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov....
Tillerson readies for tough talk with Russia
Rex Tillerson’s seemingly cozy ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin drew bipartisan alarm and nearly derailed his confirmation as secretary of state. But some three months later, as the former ExxonMobil CEO heads to Moscow on his first trip as America’s top diplomat, it’s hard to believe Russian...
Russia’s latest victim in Ukraine — reform
Last month, activists and students barricaded the doors of the central Kiev branch of Sberbank, a Russian state-owned bank. The message: Stop the Kremlin from using profits made in Ukraine to fund its war against Ukraine. The demonstration was a manifestation of growing popular fury over the perception that the primary beneficiaries ofÂ...
Ukraine gets visa waiver green light from European Parliament
Ukrainian passport holders will be able to travel to most EU countries without a visa under new rules approved today by the European Parliament. Once formally adopted in June, the rules will allow Ukrainian biometric passport holders to visit for 90 days out of any 180-day period for tourism or business. The U.K. and Ireland are excluded,...
Tillerson to meet Lavrov in Moscow next week
Secretary of State Rex Tillerson will travel to Moscow next Wednesday for a meeting with Russian officials, including the Kremlin’s foreign minister, Sergey Lavrov. Tillerson plans to discuss issues including Ukraine, North Korea, Syria, and counterterrorism with the officials while in Moscow, according to the State Department. The...
Ukraine PM promises reforms will kick in this year
Volodymyr Groysman, Ukraine’s prime minister, promised that his citizens will finally reap the benefits of economic reforms this year in an interview with the Financial Times published Wednesday. “The people will feel it, or God forbid we will fall back into stagnation,†Groysman said. For the past three years,...
Britain’s new centrist pin-up is … a Frenchman
LONDON — Britain’s beleaguered centrists have found their champion — and they’re sending the troops across the English Channel to help him win. The new golden boy for the Liberal Democrats is Emmanuel Macron, whom opinion polls favor to win the French presidential election in early May over far-right leader...
Haley eclipses Tillerson on Trump’s foreign policy ladder
In Donald Trump’s first meeting with Nikki Haley, on Nov. 17, he asked her to serve as his secretary of state. Haley turned him down, according to two sources familiar with the conversation, telling the president-elect that she lacked the requisite foreign policy experience for the job. The former South Carolina governor ended up...
Nikki Haley: Trump ‘not stopping me from beating up on Russia’
U.S. ambassador to the United Nations Nikki Haley said Saturday that President Donald Trump has not stopped her from “beating up on Russia.” In an interview with ABC’s “This Week,” host Martha Raddatz asked the former South Carolina governor how the U.S. maintains its role, in Haley’s words, as the “moral conscience of the world” if...
Germany pushes back on Trump’s NATO demands
With U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visiting NATO for the first time, Germany pushed back Friday against U.S. President Donald Trump’s repeated demands that allies increase their military spending. Tillerson is the third Trump emissary to visit NATO headquarters in recent weeks and insist that allies show his boss the money by...
