00:00William, it was the third summit of what France and Britain have called the coalition of the
00:06willing. Do you think Europe is under immense pressure to step up to the plate to support
00:12Ukraine as America pushes for more defence spending and seems to be stepping back slightly
00:19from this?
00:20Yes, and there are many dimensions to this new European positioning. You know, part of
00:28this reflects some of the language that we're hearing, is stepping in for the United States
00:34and other aspects of it are stepping in despite the United States, because ultimately it's Europe's
00:41interests that are more at stake here and that's why the repositioning of France and the UK are
00:50so important, both in terms of being independent of the US and in terms of helping the US do things.
00:56You probably noticed in the other big story in the news right now, the signal leaks about the
01:02Houthi bombing. There was a very interesting discussion between Stephen Miller, J.D. Vance
01:06and others about extracting concessions for Europe when the US does things to help the European
01:12economy, in this case opening up the Babel-Mendez Straits. And that reflects really interesting
01:18ideas about Europe and Trump's inner circle, that the US needs to be transactional with
01:25Europe and extract concessions when the US does things Europe wants.
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