PM De Wever visits Kyiv to underscore Belgian support for Ukraine

Vice Adm. Shoshana Chatfield, the U.S. representative to NATO has been fired. If the U.S. gov wanted to give the impression of a return to gross sexism, is this what it would look like?

De diplomatieke brutaliteit van Donald Trump lijkt Europa nu eindelijk wakker te hebben geschud. Wat zijn de opties voor meer Europese samenwerking? (www.sampol.be/2025/04/naar...)

Demo of a drone (UAV) that autonomously 'docks' an maintenance station. A robot arm removes the battery back and replaces it with a new fully charged pack, then the robot selects the sensor module and puts in a daylight EO set. (of IR, of SIGINT) 1/

Europe plans historic military buildup defence-blog.com/europe-plans...

Representatives from 15 member nations announced a multinational plan to address lower-level air threats – those flying below 500 feet. ukdefencejournal.org.uk/?p=56841

Na München is duidelijk dat Amerikaanse steun niet langer vanzelfsprekend is. Alexander Mattelaer (VUB/Egmont) ziet dat een ‘diepere frustratie’ speelt. ‘De VS willen de verdediging van het continent grotendeels door de Europese belastingbetaler laten dragen.’ www.demorgen.be/oorlog-in-oe...

Als je vrede wilt, bereid je dan voor op oorlog

I really liked this picture! Friends, how about you? By the way, there was a similar bingo with ships of the Russian Black Sea Fleet not long ago.

Signs on the wall ...

La Matinale Européenne est sortie. L’analyse du jour: « L'UE cherche une alliance sur le libre-échange pour se protéger de Trump ». Avec @cspillmann.bsky.social et @idafe.bsky.social 👇 lamatinaleeuropeenne.substack.com/p/lue-cherch...

Le 22 janvier 1963, Charles de Gaulle et Konrad Adenauer signaient le Traité de l’Elysée. Entre nos peuples, nos États, nos élus, l’amitié franco-allemande est l’un des plus beaux fondements du projet européen. Nourrissons-la. Es lebe die 🇫🇷🇩🇪 Freundschaft !

"Europe needs to learn how to fully take care of itself" - President Zelenskyy at Davos. The time to act is now.

EU's Kallas: Russia is posing an existential threat to our security uk.news.yahoo.com/eus-kallas-r...?

L'hymne européen à Bratislava hier soir où des dizaines de milliers de Slovaques ont manifesté (comme dans une 30ne d'autres villes) contre le PM pro-russe. Vous l'aurez lu ici avant : il y a de fortes chances que dans quelques mois, on voit les mêmes images à Prague et en Tchéquie...

L'infrastructure sous-marine est très importante pour l' #Europe. L'état-major belge de l'escadre de l' #OTAN à bord du Luymes, supervisera l'exécution de cette opération. #NATO_MARCOM #BeNeSam #TheBelgianNavy #BalticSentry

Belgian Navy takes leading role in NATO operation Baltic Sentry

⛽️⛴️ India and China have refused to accept tankers carrying Russian oil that are included in the latest U.S. sanctions lists, - Bloomberg. Russia is facing increasing difficulties in selling its oil, while buyers are being forced to seek fuel from other suppliers.

❗️🇸🇪Sweden discovers damage to Nordbalt cable in Baltic Sea The damage was likely caused by the 🇨🇳Chinese vessel Yi Peng 3.

International cooperation trumps nationalistic reflexes…

Will we have a ‘Bannon vs Musk’ movie?

The problem with appeasement is that you eventually run out of other people's countries. And then a rust bucket full of oil drifts towards *your* coast.

I can’t love this more.

I wish I remembered the name of the Brexitier buffoon that in a conference in Cyprus in 2017 tried to ‘explain’ to me that the UK would become “Singapore on Thames” and that Portugal would better off outside the EU… I guess he wasn’t that relevant.

Réception de Nouvel An chez les Cadets de Marine à #Charleroi. Un Corps pour la jeunesse, dédié au monde marin et à son avenir. #CRCM-KMK #TheBelgianNavy

It's weird how time works. It's already 2025 in Polynesia, in the USA it's still 2024 but in Russia it's 1951. #HappyNewYear

Mijn situatie vanavond.

Welcome to Heaven, Jimmy Carter.

US shoots down its own F-18 over the Red Sea 😶 “The guided missile cruiser USS Gettysburg, which is part of the USS Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group, mistakenly fired on and hit the F/A-18,” Central Command said in a statement.” apnews.com/article/mide...

Ireland has the chance to do the funniest thing ever.

C’est pas loin d’être le mec le plus occupé de France en ce moment, mais @simnasr.bsky.social a pris le temps d’enregistrer hier un long podcast pour expliquer la surprise stratégique de l’année, et se demander ce qui a permis cette fois, et pour de bon, la chute de 50 ans de tyrannie Assad.

⚡️The 🇦🇺Australian Navy has launched a Tomahawk cruise missile for the first time during a training exercise. Australia has become the third country after the 🇺🇸United States and the 🇬🇧United Kingdom to have Tomahawk cruise missiles in service.

New Dutch Combat Support Ship youtube.com/watch?v=Jq4u...

One of Russia's poodles in the EU is upset.

‘Data from the battlefield suggest that the hit rate for these AI-guided drones is currently above 80%. That is higher than the rate of manually piloted drones. As important, the training burden declines dramatically. “We can train an operator within 30 minutes…”’ www.economist.com/europe/2024/...

Trots op dit trio-interview met @tomsimoens.bsky.social @generalmarc.bsky.social in De Morgen dit WE. BLUF: we hebben 🇷🇺 jarenlang onderschat & staan nu voor een enorme inspanning om onze defensie weer op orde te krijgen. Dat vergt 📈 strategische realiteitszin en Navo-aandacht in ons nat'l debat.

Thank you UK. Euro solidarity. High time we tighten the relation with UK again. Starting on Defence and Security.

Zo ziet de Russische schaduwoorlog tegen Europa eruit (overzicht van Oostenrijkse krant Der Standard):

📄𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 by #VictorDeDecker "Trump brings sledgehammer to #China and the #Dollar ¨ While #Trump targets Beijing as his biggest economic rival, ironically, his closest opponent is closer to home in the #Eccles Building. 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 👉 tinyurl.com/yx7remfc #geoeconomics #Policy #US #USDollar

📄𝗡𝗘𝗪 𝗣𝗨𝗕𝗟𝗜𝗖𝗔𝗧𝗜𝗢𝗡 by Sven Biscop "EU Strategy 2025-2029: We Have the Instruments, Now Set the Objectives" 𝗥𝗲𝗮𝗱 𝗺𝗼𝗿𝗲 👉 bit.ly/49cemph

⚡ By 2025, Ukraine plans to deploy drone swarms and thousands of robotic ground vehicles to frontlines, enhancing its technological edge in warfare.

"In all of those domains, Ukraine’s contribution, once it becomes a member state, will be very positive for the EU competitiveness," he said. Report in today's ***Pravda.*** Ukraine will join the EU in less time than Putin will march into Kyiv.

Not only has Brexit stripped away our freedoms, damaged our businesses and hiked prices for everyone... ...It's also costing a fortune.

Though Europe may have 10 times Russia's GDP, if Russia works 10 times harder at generating military force, then we will not be secure. => Europe must go up to 3% of GDP on average, our goal must be overmatch, we must be massively more powerful than Russia, so Moscow knows we could crush them.

Interesting interview in FT. www.ft.com/content/6137...

“Andrius Kubilius, incoming EU defence commissioner, has said the UK is important to plans to increase arms manufacturing. “We consider Britain as part of Europe,” he told the Financial Times in September. “Democratic Europeans should be as united as possible.”” on.ft.com/4fcpjst

“No state is secure without its own army; if it hasn’t got men to defend it determinedly and loyally in a crisis, it is simply relying on luck” — Machiavelli - The Prince If Russia never existed, Europeans would still need armies.

1-7 Zelensky's idea here is what former NATO SG Rasmussen had proposed: Ukraine joins NATO officially as a state; only its free part gets covered by Article 5. The russian occupation of Ukrainian territories is never recognised by anyone. Open issues follow. www.pravda.com.ua/eng/news/202...

And HRVP @kajakallas.bsky.social Is right