Summary
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an “immediate” summit between the US, EU, and Western allies to discuss Ukraine following a heated White House meeting between Trump and President Zelenskyy.
The February 28 meeting ended without agreement on a minerals deal after escalating into a confrontation over US aid and peace deal conditions.
Meloni warned that Western division “makes us all weaker” as European leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented that “the free world needs a new leader,” while European allies worry about being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war.
The sourcing is what actually makes people worry, and makes the Ukrainian government ask from every big supplier: “do you have a backup plan that works without Chinese parts?”.
Tracing the supply chains would reveal that Europe has only half of the industries needed to make a decent drone - with the rest coming from China, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Vietnam, etc.
In peaceful times, it would not be such a problem - “oh, we cannot make autonomous agricultural vehicles”.
In not so peaceful times, it’s a considerable risk, and a lot of people are working to lower the risk. It means setting up industries which were outsourced to the other side of the planet.