WARSAW, POLAND — South Korea and Poland signed a cooperation agreement on Wednesday as the democratic allies increasingly find themselves united by concerns about the global security situation despite the vast geographical distance between them. 

Foreign ministers Cho Tae-yul of South Korea and Poland’s Radek Sikorski signed an action plan which outlines their relations in the areas of politics, economy, defense and culture through 2028. 

“We both reaffirmed that there is a need to further strengthen our cooperation for transregional security cooperation, encompassing both Europe and the Indo-Pacific within the framework of the NATO-IP4 partnership,” said Cho, referring to NATO’s partnership with allies in the Indo-Pacific region, South Korea, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. 

South Korea and Poland have been strategic partners since 2013, with South Korea in recent years becoming a major supplier of weapons as NATO member Poland carries out a massive investment program to modernize its armed forces. 

“Poland is the largest recipient of Korean military equipment worldwide, and we would like to further develop this cooperation with the prospect of relocating production and technology transfer to Poland,” Sikorski told reporters. “Poland can also serve as a hub for further promotion of Korean military equipment in Europe and for the rebuilding of Ukraine.” 

The two nations share concerns about the situation in Ukraine, which lies on Poland’s eastern border and has sent jitters across NATO’s eastern flank. 

South Korea and Poland, along with other European allies, have also been concerned about North Korea’s support for Russia in the war, including its dispatch of North Korean soldiers to fight alongside the Russians. Seoul worries that Russia could reward North Korea with transfers of sensitive technology to enhance its nuclear and missile programs. 

Cho told a news briefing that his country is launching an assistance package of over $2 billion, building on $400 million provided to Ukraine last year, “to address Ukraine’s urgent needs in energy, infrastructure, health care and education.” 

Sikorski and Cho also discussed expanding access to Polish food products in the South Korean market. 

“Poland is now Korea’s fifth largest trading partner within the EU (European Union), and Korea has become the largest Asian investor in Poland as of 2024. This is a testament to the trust and potential both nations see in each other’s economic future,” Cho said.
…

your ad here

You do not hear much from Russian civilians in international media as Russia’s government restricts foreign reporters working in the country. For VOA, Genia Dulot met with some Russian tourists visiting the Indian Ocean republic of Maldives to hear what they think about international sanctions and U.S. President Donald Trump’s efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
…

your ad here

U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a “pause” Monday to military aid shipments to Ukraine with immediate effect, which his administration said was aimed at forcing all sides to peace talks. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, European leaders have said it is vital to continue weapons shipments to Kyiv — but there are doubts over how long Ukraine can keep on fighting. Anna Chernikova contributed.
…

your ad here

Paris — With Washington’s sudden pause on military aid to Ukraine as a backdrop, worried European Union leaders meet in Brussels Thursday to discuss steps to beef up EU defenses against Russia.

“The question is no longer whether Europe’s security is threatened in a very real way, or whether Europe should shoulder more of its responsibility for its own security,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the summit, as she outlined a multi-pronged $840 billion defense financing plan for the 27-member bloc.

“The real question in front of us,” she said, “is whether Europe is prepared to act as decisively as the situation dictates — and whether Europe is ready and able to act with speed and ambition that is needed.”

That message has been resonating across multiple emergency summits that gathered European leaders fearful of possible U.S. disengagement, and has resulted in new European defense spending commitments, after years of Washington demands to take on more of the burden.

But EU members also face steep challenges as they move to rearm, from sometimes shaky governments and economies, to skeptical populations and a surging far right that is often more favorable toward Russia.

Especially concerning for many is the Trump administration’s possible pivot from a longstanding transatlantic alliance.

“It raises very big issues for the future of the European Union — and I think people in Europe are very aware of this,” said Ian Lesser, who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund policy institute. “Is Europe going to address these challenges, whether it’s on trade or defense — in a collective way? Or are countries, member states, going to go their own way?”

Sense of urgency

For many EU leaders, today’s message is unity. During a summit in London, EU countries and non-member Britain agreed to develop their own peace plan for Ukraine to present to Washington. France and Britain also backed a “coalition of the willing” sending troops to Ukraine to enforce any peace deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron — who has long called for a more militarily autonomous Europe — has also suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrence to other European countries.

“The sense of urgency is finally catching up with European leaders but it’s not sufficient at the moment,” said Olena Prokopenko, a senior German Marshall Fund fellow. “We see different levels of understanding of the level of threat that Europe is facing at the moment.”

“I see some degree of — I don’t want to say panic — but really alarmed Europeans who realize they need to stick together as much as possible,” said Elie Tenenbaum, director of security studies at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.

Still, he added, Europe faces a daunting task. “If the Europeans want to step up and make up for the loss of American aid to Ukraine, it needs to happen now,” Tenenbaum said. “They need to put the money on the table, they need to pass on the orders to the defense industry.”

Beyond Ukraine, the Brussels-based Bruegel policy institute estimates Europe would need 300,000 more troops and hundreds of billions more dollars to deter possible Russian aggression without the United States.

Europe is “lacking ammunition, we’re lacking replacement parts, we’re lacking readiness,” Tenenbaum said.

Former French ambassador Michel Duclos, however, points to Europe’s assets. “Yes, we are not in a good situation,” said Duclos, now an analyst at the Montaigne Institute research group in Paris. “But at the same time, in demographic terms, in economic terms, we could be much stronger than Russia, if we are able to put our act together in defense terms.”

Pushback

Europe’s new security ambitions are already facing pushback. France’s powerful far-right National Rally party, for one, has rejected France including Europe in its nuclear deterrence capability, and leader Marine Le Pen describes an independent European defense as “illusory.”

Hungary’s Viktor Orban, noted for his friendly Kremlin ties, has called on Europe to instead enter direct talks to bring about a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.  

Many European economies are struggling, while public support for Ukraine is fading in some countries. A pair of recent polls, for instance, shows that while two-thirds of French citizens believe Europe should continue supporting Kyiv, three-quarters don’t want French boots on the ground — except to enforce a possible peace.

“So far, European leaders have been trying to be more reassuring than alarming,” says analyst Tenenbaum, of the message many are sending their populations. “But if they want to justify higher defense spending and risk taking, then they will need to be much more vocal” about the dangers the region is facing.

For analyst Duclos, last week’s heated White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky offered an impetus to prepare Europeans for going it alone.

“What happened in the Oval Office last week was useful to make people understand we disagree not only on the means, instruments and policies, but on something more fundamental: on values, on the threat perception,” he said of growing transatlantic differences. “And for the French public, it was the most powerful of wake-up calls.”
…

your ad here

Rome — Pope Francis rested early Tuesday after he suffered further setbacks in his fight against double pneumonia: two new acute respiratory crises that required him to resume using noninvasive mechanical ventilation to breathe. 

In its early Tuesday update, the Vatican said: “The pope slept through the night, now rest continues.” 

Francis suffered the two crises Monday. Doctors extracted “copious” amounts of mucus that had accumulated in his lungs, the Vatican said in a late update. They performed two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid. 

The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation: a mask that covers his nose and mouth and pumps oxygen into the lungs. 

Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel, the Vatican said. The prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger. Doctors didn’t say if he remained in stable condition, though they referred to the crises in the past tense, suggesting they were over. 

The crises were a new setback in what has become a more than two-week battle by the frail pope to overcome a complex respiratory infection. 

The Vatican said the mucus that had accumulated in Francis’ lungs was his body’s reaction to the original pneumonia infection and not a new infection, given laboratory tests don’t indicate any new bacteria. 

Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episodes were more concerning than the last one on Friday, in which Francis had a coughing fit, inhaled some vomit that needed to be extracted and then was put on the noninvasive mechanical ventilation for a day and then didn’t need it anymore. 

The use of bronchoscopies reflects a worrying level of mucus and phlegm in the lungs, Coleman said. “The fact that they had to go in there and remove it manually is concerning, because it means that he is not clearing the secretions on his own,” he said. 

“He’s taking little steps forward and then steps back,” said Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care. 

Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. But the accumulation of the secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn’t have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid. 

Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It’s not clear if he has provided any advance directives about the limits of his care if he declines or loses consciousness. 

Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life. 

Francis articulated that in a 2017 speech to a meeting of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank, the Pontifical Academy for Life. He said there was “no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.” He added: “It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment.’” 

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the academy which helps articulate the Catholic Church’s position on end-of-life care, said Francis is like any other Catholic and would follow church teaching, if it came to that. 

“Today the pope is giving us an extraordinary teaching on fragility,” he told reporters Monday. “Today the pope, not through words but with his body, is reminding all of us, we elderly people to begin with, that we are all fragile and therefore we need to take care of each other.” 

Francis’ hospitalization, which hits 18 nights Tuesday, is by no means reaching the papal record that was set during St. John Paul II’s numerous lengthy hospitalizations over a quarter century. The longest single hospitalization occurred in 1981, when John Paul spent 55 days in Gemelli for a minor operation and then to be treated for a serious infection that followed.
…

your ad here

As Ukraine’s war enters its fourth year, 6.8 million Ukrainians remain refugees. Researchers say fewer than half plan to return when the war ends. From Kyiv, Lesia Bakalets reports on what can be done to encourage more of them to return to their homeland.
…

your ad here

President Donald Trump has placed a pause on aid to Ukraine, the White House announced late Monday.

“The President has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a senior administration official told VOA in an email. The official is not being named, as is customary when engaging with reporters. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Earlier Monday, Trump was pointed in saying a deal for rare earth minerals was key to continued U.S. support of Ukraine, and said he would make an announcement on the matter Tuesday when he speaks before a joint session of Congress.

There was fallout on both sides of the Atlantic Monday amid mounting European concerns about Ukraine’s future, as European leaders scrambled after Trump’s contentious Friday exchange with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. That Oval Office blow-up ended a minerals deal that Trump argued was key for continuing U.S. support for Ukraine.

Trump has pushed to end the fighting, but Zelenskyy has expressed fears that Trump is attempting to settle the conflict on terms more favorable to Moscow than Kyiv.

On Monday, the business-minded president hammered his increasingly blunt point: If Ukraine wants to survive, Zelenskyy needs to make a deal.

“It can be made very fast,” Trump said. “Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long, because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal. They’ve suffered more than anybody else.”

Earlier in the day in a social media posting, Trump derided Zelenskyy’s assessment that the end of Russia’s war with his country “is still very, very far away,” calling that “the worst statement.”

“America will not put up with it for much longer!” he added.

Analysts say they understand where Trump lands on major issues like Ukraine’s future membership in NATO and the prospect of U.S. troops on the ground — both hard nos from Trump.

But on this economic deal, they say, they can’t predict the president’s next move.

Even before Zelenskyy landed in Washington, the deal was painted in broad strokes. It was meant to allow U.S. investment in rare-earth mineral exploration in exchange for reinvestment.

But Zelenskyy had insisted on the need for U.S. security guarantees, which were not in the original draft.

“It’s still unclear what Trump’s plan really is,” Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA in a Zoom interview. “What we can also see what has emerged over the weekend is that Europe is stepping up to do more to deter Russia.”

After the White House meeting fell apart, Zelenskyy flew across the Atlantic to meet with European allies. He was warmly greeted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

At Westminster on Monday, Starmer reiterated Britain’s offer of peacekeepers and announced $2 billion for 5,000 air defense missiles for Ukraine. He echoed the narrative that former President Joe Biden used to justify U.S. support — that the Belfast-made products would feed back into the British economy.

“Britain will play a leading role with, if necessary, and together with others, boots on the ground and planes in the air,” he said, speaking to Parliament. “Mr. Speaker, it is right that Europe do the heavy lifting to support peace on our continent. But to succeed, this effort must also have strong U.S. backing.”

That followed the talks Sunday in London during which Starmer told 18 allies that with the United States wavering in its support for Ukraine, Europe finds itself “at a crossroads in history.”

Also Monday, the two men at the center of the three-year-war delivered their messages to the world, which showed how far apart these neighbors are on ending the war.

Zelenskyy said his country remained ready to sign a rare-earth minerals deal with the U.S., and that he believes he can salvage relations with Trump.

“The failure of Ukraine is not just [the] success of [Russian President Vladimir] Putin,” Zelenskyy said. “It is the failure of Europe. It is the failure of the United States of America. I think we are all interested in not giving Putin an opportunity to win.”

Dmitry Peskov, a spokesman for Putin, told journalists, “What happened in the White House on Friday certainly showed how difficult it will be to get on the path to a settlement around Ukraine. The Kyiv regime and Zelenskyy do not want peace.”

“They want the war to continue. Therefore, in this situation, of course, Washington’s efforts and Moscow’s readiness alone will clearly not be enough. A crucial element is missing,” he said.

The day before, Peskov said Washington’s foreign policy shift toward Russia is largely aligned with Moscow’s vision.

“The new administration is rapidly changing all foreign policy configurations,” he said, in an interview with Russian state television that was recorded last Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Beijing also expressed wishes for a resolution.

“China is not the creator or a party to the Ukraine crisis, and we support all efforts conducive to peacefully resolving the issue, said Lin Jian, spokesman for the Chinese Foreign Ministry. ”We hope all parties concerned will work out a lasting and sustainable solution that addresses each other’s concerns.”

Trump plans to make his next Ukraine pronouncement during his address to a joint session of Congress Tuesday night.

Kim Lewis contributed to this article. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
…

your ad here