Laurence Norman
Appearances
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
Significantly, we've heard France talk about extending its nuclear umbrella, using the nuclear weapons that it has to defend its European allies. And there is some interest and there are some conversations around how that would work.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
This obviously comes at a time when there is a great deal of concern that the Trump administration is less interested in NATO and less interested in defending Europe's security.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
If there is a single country that is at this stage most likely to go for a nuclear weapon because of its concerns about U.S. support... it is probably South Korea. They've talked about it over the last couple of years. They also had a program in the past that was dabbling in nuclear weapons.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
There are US officials who are expected to be quite high up in the Trump administration who have encouraged South Korea to think about the nuclear option because the US doesn't want to have a large defense commitment and tens of thousands of troops bogged down in South Korea in the future if it's going to face off with China.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
Iran. They are very, very close. Some people think that they could put together some kind of crude missile in a matter of two, three months. They could easily choose to develop a nuclear weapon. And as Marion said, if the Iranians do, the Saudis have said they will. The one that we should really worry about is the one we've been worrying about for 20 years, which is Iran.
WSJ What’s News
Trump Prompts Rethink of Nuclear-Weapons Deals
So I think the first thing to say is that this change so far is incremental. There is not a sudden race to nuclear arms taking place across the world. What we've heard in Europe is in Germany, a country that has never really considered nuclear weapons. There is some talk on the margins of do we need to do this?
WSJ What’s News
Can Europe Broker a Peace Plan for Ukraine?
So the UK and France are working on plans that would put a force of thousands of Europeans into Ukraine under a peace deal. It wouldn't sit on the border, it would be placed elsewhere in Ukraine. Sie hatten zwei andere Aufgaben in London. Eine war, den Rauch zwischen Trump und Zelenskyj zu patchen. and to get the Ukrainians and the Americans to agree on a deal for minerals in Ukraine.
WSJ What’s News
Can Europe Broker a Peace Plan for Ukraine?
It's not clear that that move forward. And secondly, is that even the Brits, who are very clear that they are willing to put troops in Ukraine under a peace deal, say they need Washington to provide some kind of protection for those European forces if they come under attack from Russia. And Donald Trump has been anything but clear about whether he's willing to commit.