WORLD NEWS FOR MONTENEGRO DIASPORA
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AUTHOR:M.J. GDNUS
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte is in Washington today and tomorrow, where he met with US President Donald Trump, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.
NATO did not specify the reason for Rutte's visit in an official statement, but Trump announced in a recent interview with NBC News that the US would be ready to deliver weapons to Ukraine through NATO, announcing that he would make a "major statement" on Monday.
So far, the Trump administration has only sent weapons approved by former President Joe Biden, known as a strong supporter of Kiev.
Yesterday, Trump announced that he would send Patriot air defense systems to Ukraine.
Trump said that he often speaks with Russian President Vladimir Putin and that he knows what a fair deal is.
“I talk to him a lot about getting this resolved. I always end the conversation thinking, ‘That was a good call.’ And then they launch missiles at Kiev or some other city, and I think, ‘That’s weird,’” Trump said. “When you do that three or four times, you realize that those talks don’t make sense.”
He described Putin as a “tough guy” who has “conned a lot of people” and former U.S. presidents. “At the end of the day, talks don’t mean anything. There has to be action. There has to be results,” Trump said.
Speaking about Ukraine, Trump said that a deal should have been reached four times already, but that negotiations are still ongoing.
He added that billions of dollars worth of military equipment would be purchased in the United States and delivered to NATO to support Ukraine in its war against Russia, and that the equipment would be deployed to the battlefield very quickly.
“This is a great deal that we’ve done, it’s billions of dollars of military equipment purchased in the United States that goes to NATO and will be distributed to the front very quickly. Ukraine will receive it.” He also stressed that the cost of the weapons would be borne by NATO member states, not American taxpayers.
Trump said NATO would coordinate the operation, and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte confirmed that the Europeans wanted to be part of it and that more help would be coming soon. He added that the countries would quickly send equipment to Ukraine.
“This is, again, the Europeans taking responsibility,” Rutte said.
Trump reiterated that he was not happy with relations with Russia and that he was ready to impose “serious tariffs” on Russia if a deal was not reached to end the war in Ukraine.
“One of the reasons you are here today is to hear that we, or I, are very unhappy with Russia,” Trump said. “But we may talk about that another time. We are very, very unhappy and we will impose very serious tariffs if we do not reach a deal within 50 days.” He also added that trade is “a great way to resolve the conflict.”
Trump announced new arms shipments to Ukraine.
“We’re going to send the most advanced weapons, and they’re going to NATO,” Trump said.
Billions of dollars worth of weapons, including Patriot missiles and batteries, will be distributed to Ukraine. He added that some of the weapons will arrive “in a matter of days.”
Trump also threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports if Russia doesn’t reach a peace deal within 50 days.
The White House said that if no deal is reached, Trump would impose a 100% tariff on Russian exports, as well as secondary sanctions targeting third countries that buy Russian exports.
These secondary sanctions are seen as a much more serious blow to the Russian economy than previous measures, which allowed Russia to continue selling oil to buyers such as China and India.
