Clarity is beginning to form around US President Donald Trump’s plans for ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, with his administration appearing to accept some of the Kremlin’s key demands that Ukraine should not join NATO or return to its pre-2014 sovereign borders. Amid the dust of what looks to be Trump’s blowing up of the previous US position on peace, another administration priority is also coming into focus: an attention shift away from Europe and toward China. Speaking at a meeting in Brussels Wednesday, US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said that “stark strategic realities prevent the United States of America from being primarily focused on the security of Europe.” One focus needed to be US border security, he told counterparts gathering to discuss Ukrainian security – another was Beijing. “We also face a peer competitor in the Communist Chinese with the capability and intent to threaten our homeland and core…
