Vice President JD Vance speaking with President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen at the US embassy in Paris on February 11, 2025. (Getty Images)
Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan shakes hands with NATO secretary general Mark Rutte at the Presidential Complex in Ankara, Turkiye, on April 22, 2026. (Getty Images)
A weapon is mounted on the Lehit ground robotic system, developed by specialists of the International Legion under the Defence Intelligence of Ukraine, during a demonstration in Ukraine on December 9, 2025. (Getty Images)
People gather in front of the Chinese Consulate General to protest the unjust conviction of Jimmy Lai on February 14, 2026, in Los Angeles, California. (Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin looks through the scope as he shoots a Chukavin sniper rifle during a visit to the military Patriot Park in Kubinka, outside Moscow, on September 19, 2018. (Photo by Alexey Nikolsky/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
A 550-ton outer dome is hoisted in place at the construction site of the world's first commercial small modular reactor, Linglong One, on February 6, 2024, in Hainan Province, China. (Photo by Luo Yunfei/China News Service/VCG via Getty Images)
Former Visiting Fellow, Center on Europe and Eurasia
Tomas Janeliūnas
Commentary
5
Min Read
Caption
Chinese President Xi Jinping with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban in Budapest, Hungary, on May 9, 2024. (Photo by Xie Huanchi/Xinhua via Getty Images)
Firefighters work on the site of a fire on May 4, 2024, in Kharkiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Viacheslav Mavrychev/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
A drone equipped with an electronic warfare system takes off during a presentation on March 19, 2024, in Ukraine. (Photo by Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukrainian infantrymen from the 126th Territorial Defense Brigade train on the banks of the Dnipro on April 16, 2024, in Kherson Oblast, Ukraine. (Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
A small boat transfers a Romanian boarding team from Standing NATO Maritime Group Two (SNMG2) ship ROS Regele Ferdinand to SNMG2 flagship HMS Duncan on February 7, 2018. (NATO photo by GBRN LPhot Paul Hall)