Ashish Kumar Sen

The outcome of the war in Ukraine will likely shape China’s behavior toward its neighbors, two US senators — one a Democrat the other a Republican — told the CEPA Forum on September 28. “I don’t know what [Chinese President] Xi Jinping is going to do, but neither does anyone else. Perhaps he doesn’t even know what he’s going to do. But I can guarantee you one thing: the leadership of the Communist Party of China is watching what happens in Ukraine,” said US Senator Roger Wicker (Republican-Mississippi.)

US Senator Mitch McConnell (Republican-KY), in his remarks to the CEPA Forum on September 27, reiterated the importance of continuing support for Ukraine, emphasizing its alignment with US interests and the minimal cost involved.

The United States needs to provide Ukraine with more military aid so that it can win the war against Russia, but it must also have a plan to win the peace once the war is over, Stephen J. Hadley, a former national security advisor to US President George W. Bush, told the 2023 CEPA Forum , “Winning the War, Winning the Peace,” on September 26.

Democrats captured the House of Representatives while Republicans strengthened their Senate majority in the US midterm elections on November 6.

If the United States is to succeed in tackling Russian meddling, it needs to address vulnerabilities—dark money and shell corporations—that are “an open invitation to the Russians to continue their election interference,” US Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) said at the Atlantic Council on September 26.

Despite Sen. Rand Paul, Montenegro’s Foreign Minister is Confident of NATO Membership  Montenegro’s Foreign Minister Srdjan Darmanovic is confident that, despite a procedural setback, the US Senate will ratify a protocol that will allow his nation to become the twenty-ninth member of NATO. This, he said, should happen before the Alliance’s summit in Brussels in May.

Trump’s ‘Disastrous’ Proposal to Cut Foreign Aid  US President Donald J. Trump’s proposal to ramp up defense spending at the cost of foreign aid is attracting flak from within his Republican Party and retired generals who believe such a move is not in the United States’ best interests.

In November 2015, Donald Trump sat down for an interview with Stephen Bannon, executive chairman of the Breitbart News Network, a far-right news and opinion site. In the course of the conversation, Bannon made the startling assertion that Silicon Valley has far too many Asian CEOs. An ominous portent of things to come? It certainly seems so today.

Trump’s Immigration Ban Will Have ‘Catastrophic Implications’  US President Donald Trump’s executive order that curtails immigration and the rights of refugees is illegal, has “catastrophic implications” for the United States, and is a “gift” to hardliners in Iran as it paints all Iranians as a security threat to the United States, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) said at the Atlantic Council in Washington on January 30.

Trump’s Wall Drives a Wedge Between the United States and Mexico  US President Donald Trump’s demand that Mexico pay for a border wall has plunged the US-Mexico relationship into an unseemly crisis, according to two Latin America analysts at the Atlantic Council.

US-India Relationship: Playing Defense  As the United States and India set out to realize their goal of elevating annual bilateral trade to $500 billion over the next decade, deeper defense cooperation will be key to energizing a trade relationship that has “plateaued,” two senior US Senators said at the Atlantic Council on April 25.

Will the US Congress Chip Away at the Embargo on Cuba? US President Barack Obama and his Cuban counterpart, Raúl Castro, agree on at least one thing: the US trade and travel embargo on Cuba has to go. That is easier said than done.

Trump: Rallying around an ‘instrument of class vengeance’ US Senator Lindsey Graham has labelled him a “nut job.” Former Governors Jeb Bush of Florida, Rick Perry of Texas, and Bobby Jindal of Louisiana have described him as a “jerk, loser, liar, and whiner”; a “cancer on conservatism”; and “a shallow, unserious, substance-free, narcissistic egomaniac,” respectively. But these Republican leaders’ opinions appear not to be shared by a majority of the people who count at the ballot box: the American voter. And so it is that Donald J. Trump, a boorish billionaire and political neophyte, has been propelled to the front of the pack of Republican candidates hoping to be the next occupant of the White House.  

Obama’s Cuba Trip Exposes Cruz, Rubio as ‘Outdated’   US President Barack Obama’s decision to make an historic visit to Cuba in March will have a negligible impact on the presidential election in the United States; if anything, it has succeeded in exposing just how out of touch critics of this engagement—particularly Republican presidential candidates Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, both Cuban-Americans—are, according to the Atlantic Council’s two top Latin America analysts. US President Barack Obama met Cuban President Raúl Castro at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on September 29, 2015. Obama will travel to Cuba on March 21 becoming the first US President to make the trip since Calvin Coolidge visited in 1928. (Reuters/Kevin Lamarque)

What Will Lifting Iran Sanctions Mean for US Firms? Even after US, EU, and UN sanctions have been lifted, Americans thinking of doing business in Iran will be restrained by other US sanctions and prohibited from dealing with blacklisted Iranian officials and entities, a top Obama administration official said at the Atlantic Council on December 17. The possibility of “snapback”—sanctions being re-imposed in the event Iran were not to abide by its obligations under the nuclear deal reached in July—would also be cause for caution for those looking to reap business opportunities in the Islamic Republic.  

Iran’s Swift Compliance with Nuclear Deal’s Terms Seen Creating a Verification Challenge Iran is implementing its commitments under a nuclear agreement at such a swift pace that it is creating a challenge for the verification process to keep up, the State Department’s lead coordinator for implementation of the deal said at the Atlantic Council on December 17.

US Trade Representative Froman Confident Congress Will Back TPP A trade deal negotiated by the Obama administration and eleven other Pacific Rim countries, while not perfect, will eventually win bipartisan support from members of Congress, US Trade Representative Michael Froman said at the Atlantic Council on Oct. 27.

‘We Need a Freakin’ Budget’  The Pentagon needs a long-term budget that is free of caps if it is to address important global threats, including from Islamist militants, Russia, and China, a senior Democratic lawmaker said on Oct. 21.