4 h. ago EU could admit new members by 2030, says its foreign policy chief

Kaja Kallas tells reporters more countries could join 27-country bloc, including Montenegro, Albania and UkraineThe European Union could admit new members by 2030, its foreign policy chief has said, as officials praised reform efforts by frontrunners Montenegro and Albania, while criticising backsliding in Serbia and an even steeper democratic decline in Georgia.The verdicts came as the European Commission published its annual report cards on 10 countries that aspire to join the EU, after the invasion of Ukraine in 2022 injected new momentum into a process that had long been moribund. Continue reading...

Events

6 h. ago Zelenskyy calls for Ukraine to join EU before 2030 after commission delivers warning on corruption

EU says reforms needed ‘with regards to the fundamentals, in particular rule of law’ to have a chance to ‘provisionally close accession negotiations by the end of 2028’We will formally get the EU’s commentary on the enlargement ratings (9:26) in just over an hour – when EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargment commissioner Marta Kos are due to speak to journalists – but we have just had a brief glimpse of what’s coming during Kos’s appearance in the European parliament.She said these have been “significant advances on the EU path achieved so far by Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine,” stressing that “reforms pay off.”I can say that these four candidates have matched their ambitions with concrete actions. Continue reading...

Events

8 h. ago EU says Ukraine must accelerate reforms on rule of law and other ‘fundamentals’ if it wants membership

EU says reforms needed ‘with regards to the fundamentals, in particular rule of law’ to have a chance to ‘provisionally close accession negotiations by the end of 2028’We will formally get the EU’s commentary on the enlargement ratings (9:26) in just over an hour – when EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and EU enlargment commissioner Marta Kos are due to speak to journalists – but we have just had a brief glimpse of what’s coming during Kos’s appearance in the European parliament.She said these have been “significant advances on the EU path achieved so far by Montenegro, Albania, Moldova and Ukraine,” stressing that “reforms pay off.”I can say that these four candidates have matched their ambitions with concrete actions. Continue reading...

Politics

4 d. ago ‘Rely on America at your peril’: the vagaries of Trump’s foreign policy

A year on from his re-election, diplomacy is being driven by the personal whims of the president to an extent that is unprecedented in the modern era

Politics

6 d. ago Jared Kushner is back – and so are big questions about his financial ties | Mohamad Bazzi

Kushner’s investment firm is backed by three Arab petrostates critical to the Gaza agreement. And the deals keep comingIn Donald Trump’s first term, his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner was omnipresent. He worked on criminal justice reform, Covid-19 vaccine development and modernizing technology across federal agencies. His portfolio extended to foreign policy, as he brokered a new North American trade agreement and negotiated peace deals in the Middle East. But when Trump returned to the White House in January, Kushner stayed out of the limelight and declined to take a formal role in the administration.A few weeks ago, Kushner re-emerged as a central player behind Trump’s peace plan for Gaza, which so far has achieved a ceasefire, an exchange of Israeli hostages for Palestinian prisoners and a partial withdrawal of Israeli forces from the territory. Kushner took a victory lap, as Trump and others in the US administration gave him significant credit for helping negotiate ...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump to host GOP senators at White House amid demolition work and government shutdown – US politics live

The president will host a lunch for Republicans in the Rose Garden as construction is carried out on the White House’s east wingPresident Donald Trump’s hopes for a quick summit in Budapest with Russian president Vladimir Putin stalled after a preparatory session between the leaders’ top foreign-policy aides this week was put on hold, CNN reported on Monday.Citing sources familiar with the matter, CNN said the reason for postponing the meeting between US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov was unclear. One source cited differing expectations about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, CNN said. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Only 15 reporters remain in Pentagon after press pledge prompted walkouts. This is who they are

A handful of reporters from pro-Trump outlets signed the policy, as well as freelancers from foreign-based publications and obscure independent websites.

Politics

2 w. ago The Guardian view on the China spy trial: an opportunity for Labour to prove it understands the threat from Beijing | Editorial

Dispelling confusion about the collapsed case would build confidence that the government has a coherent policyNo single word describes the challenge that China poses for UK foreign policy. There is threat and opportunity; a requirement to engage and an imperative to be guarded. The Communist party in Beijing represses dissent and pursues its interests overseas with coercive nationalist determination. It is not a regime with which Britain can build a relationship based on common values.But China is also a superpower with near-monopoly control of some mineral resources and pre-eminence in important manufacturing supply chains. Trusting friendship is not an option; hostile rejection is unrealistic. It is not easy to manage relations through private diplomacy, let alone under public scrutiny. But Sir Keir Starmer’s government has looked especially awkward in its response to the collapse of a high-profile espionage case, involving the alleged transmission of secrets from inside parliamen...

Events

3 w. ago Trump again makes a weird statement about Karoline Leavitt’s lips: ‘They move like a machine gun, right’

Trump abruptly switched gears from foreign policy to comment on his press secretary’s physical appearance

Politics

3 w. ago Hamas releases final hostages as first phase of peace plan is implemented

Israel frees more than 1,900 Palestinian prisoners in significant foreign policy success for Donald Trump

Events

3 w. ago Trump’s Nobel peace prize campaign has been anything but subtle. Why is he so obsessed?

The US president’s fervid pursuit of the award is believed to have been a key motivator in brokering peace deals in Ukraine and GazaNorway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prizeNever before has a Nobel peace prize – or indeed any prize, decoration, or gold star – loomed so large over a US president and their foreign policy.Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump’s campaign to influence the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway has been anything but subtle – but with just hours to go before the award is announced, it has gone into overdrive. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Truly, madly, deeply: Trump’s desire for a Nobel peace prize is driving diplomacy

The US president’s fervid pursuit of the award is believed to have been a key motivator in brokering peace deals in Ukraine and GazaNorway braces for Trump’s reaction if he does not win Nobel peace prizeNever before has a Nobel peace prize – or indeed any prize, decoration or gold star – loomed so large over a US president and their foreign policy.Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump’s campaign to influence the Peace Research Institute Oslo in Norway has been anything but subtle – but with just hours to go before the award is announced, it has gone into overdrive. Continue reading...

Politics

3 w. ago Why Tony Blair just can’t kick the habit of imperial interference in the Middle East | Oliver Eagleton

The Blair-Trump fantasy for postwar Gaza shows the former PM still thinks that free enterprise can solve all the world’s ills“There are two types of politician,” Tony Blair observed in 2012. “Reality creators and reality managers.” While postwar politics was generally a matter of steady management, he claimed, the emerging order called for more creativity, “both in the economy and foreign policy”. Only a particular type of visionary leader was fit for the task.More than a decade later, Blair has now joined forces with the pre-eminent reality-creator, Donald Trump, to draft a hallucinatory 20-point plan for Gaza. It aims to turn the devastated Strip into what seems to resemble a colonial protectorate: cleansed of armed conflict, buzzing with development projects and a “special economic zone” through which foreign capital can flow, and overseen by an international “board of peace” with Trump himself as chair. Continue reading...

Society

4 w. ago Love him or hate him, Trump just showed Biden and Democrats how to handle Israel’s Netanyahu. But can his Gaza ‘peace’ endure?

Liberals hate Donald Trump’s demanding and sometimes petulant approach to foreign policy. But it may have achieved what Joe Biden and Kamala Harris could not, writes John Bowden

Politics