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53m ago22.03 CET
Summary

Here’s a wrap-up of the day’s key events:

Fin­nish pre­si­dent Alex­an­der Stubb told Reu­ters on Satur­day that the US had sent a que­sti­on­n­aire to Euro­pean count­ries asking them what they could do to pro­vi­de secu­ri­ty gua­ran­tees for Euro­pe. Spea­king at the Munich Secu­ri­ty Con­fe­rence, Stubb said: “The Ame­ri­cans have pro­vi­ded Euro­peans with the que­sti­on­n­aire on what would be possible.”

France is in dis­cus­sion with its allies over the idea of hol­ding an infor­mal sum­mit of Euro­pean lea­ders to dis­cuss Ukrai­ne, a French pre­si­den­cy offi­ci­al said on Satur­day, Reu­ters reports. Addi­tio­nal­ly, four Euro­pean diplo­mats said the mee­ting was likely to go ahead on Mon­day, Reu­ters added.

Donald Trump’s admi­ni­stra­ti­on has pro­po­sed to Ukrai­ne that the US be given 50% of the war-torn country’s rare earth mine­rals, NBC reports, citing four US offi­ci­als. Accor­ding to two of the offi­ci­als, instead of paying for the mine­rals, the agree­ment would be a way for Ukrai­ne to pay back the mul­ti-bil­li­on dol­lar wea­pons and aid packa­ges that the US has pro­vi­ded to it sin­ce Russia’s inva­si­on in 2022.

Ukrai­ni­an pre­si­dent Volo­dym­yr Zel­en­skyy said on Satur­day that the rare earth mine­ral deal pro­po­sed by the US did not con­tain secu­ri­ty pro­vi­si­ons which Ukrai­ne nee­ded, Reu­ters reports. Upon being asked by repor­ters what the issue was with the US docu­ment, Zel­en­skyy said on Satur­day: “It’s not in our inte­rest today, not in the inte­rest sove­reign Ukraine.”

Seni­or offi­ci­als from the US and Rus­sia are mee­ting next week in Sau­di Ara­bia to pave the way for a poten­ti­al lea­ders’ sum­mit as soon as the end of the month to dis­cuss ending the war in Ukrai­ne, accor­ding to peo­p­le fami­li­ar with the mat­ter, Reu­ters reports. On Satur­day, Donald Trump’s spe­cial envoy for Ukrai­ne Keith Kellogg said that Euro­pe will be con­sul­ted – but ulti­m­ate­ly exclu­ded – from peace talks bet­ween Rus­sia, Ukrai­ne and the US.

Ger­man chan­cell­or Olaf Scholz has shot back stron­gly in defence of his stance against the far-right and said his coun­try will not accept peo­p­le who “inter­ve­ne in our demo­cra­cy,” a day after US vice-pre­si­dent JD Van­ce scold­ed Euro­pean lea­ders over their approach to demo­cra­cy. Scholz said:“Free speech in Euro­pe means that you are not attack­ing others in ways that are against legis­la­ti­on and laws we have in our country.”

Scholz said on Satur­day that the war bet­ween Ukrai­ne and Rus­sia would only tru­ly end with peace if Ukrai­ni­an sove­reig­n­ty is secu­red. “We will also not accept any solu­ti­on that leads to a decou­pling of Euro­pean and Ame­ri­can secu­ri­ty. Only one per­son would bene­fit from this: Pre­si­dent Putin,” he added.

The Ukrai­ni­an pre­si­dent, Volo­dym­yr Zel­en­skyy, told the Munich Secu­ri­ty Con­fe­rence on Satur­day that the time has come for a Euro­pean army to be crea­ted. “Our army alo­ne is not enough, we need your sup­port,” he said, adding that the “old days” when the US sup­port­ed Euro­pe “just becau­se it always had” are over. He also told lea­ders and offi­ci­als that he would not take Nato mem­ber­ship for Ukrai­ne off the table and insi­sted that no decis­i­ons should be taken on ending Russia’s war wit­hout Kyiv and Europe.

UK for­eign mini­ster David Lam­my said on Satur­day he would encou­ra­ge US pre­si­dent Donald Trump and Zel­en­skyy to deepen their part­ner­ship in the future. Spea­king at the Munich Secu­ri­ty Con­fe­rence, Lam­my said the best secu­ri­ty gua­ran­tee for Ukrai­ne against future Rus­si­an aggres­si­on was bin­ding US indu­stry, busi­ness and defence capa­bi­li­ty into its future.

Nato secre­ta­ry gene­ral Mark Rut­te said on Satur­day that “Rus­sia is on a war eco­no­my. We are not,” at the Munich Secu­ri­ty Con­fe­rence. Addi­tio­nal­ly, Rut­te said Nato’s mem­bers would have to increa­se defence spen­ding despi­te dome­stic poli­ti­cal concerns.

Amid angry Euro­pean reac­tions to JD Vance’s com­ba­ti­ve speech in Munich, Switzerland’s pre­si­dent said on Satur­day she shared many of the “libe­ral values” he expres­sed, see­ing the speech as a “plea for direct demo­cra­cy”. In an inter­view with the Le Temps dai­ly published on Satur­day, she said that “in a cer­tain sen­se, (the speech) was very Swiss in its call to listen to the population”.

Ger­man con­ser­va­ti­ve oppo­si­ti­on lea­der Fried­rich Merz on Satur­day joi­n­ed his dome­stic poli­ti­cal rivals in con­dem­ning Vance’s attack on Europe’s stance toward hate speech and the far right. “We stick to the rules impo­sed by our demo­cra­tic insti­tu­ti­ons,” Merz said in a panel dis­cus­sion at the Munich Secu­ri­ty Conference.