Rusija rengiasi importuoti aviacinio kuro siuntą, kurios kilmės šalis – Japonija. Sandoris bus vykdomas per tarpininkus, siekiant sušvelninti degalų trūkumą, kilusį po smūgių šalies energetikos infrastruktūrai. Apie tai pranešė trys su sandorio detalėmis susipažinę šaltiniai, skelbia „Reuters“ .

Profsąjungoms reiškiant nepasitikėjimą teisingumo ministre Rita Tamašuniene, Teisingumo ministerija pripažįsta nepakankamą bausmių vykdymo sistemos finansavimą, tačiau atmeta kritiką ministrei.

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BRUSSELS — The EU must do more to fund its own security and step up support for Ukraine, Estonia’s prime minister said as Baltic leaders meet in Berlin to discuss the threats facing the bloc. Speaking ahead of the meeting with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz on Friday, Kristen Michal told POLITICO “the question is no longer whether Europe should do more for its own security. The question is how quickly we can deliver. A stronger Europe means a stronger NATO.” The EU is locked in a debate over its seven-year budget, which is due to take effect in 2028 and has been designed to boost spending on defense and security. However, disagreements between capitals on the size of the spending in other areas risk delaying an agreement. According to Michal, capitals should be more concerned about the cost of not deterring Russia’s Vladimir Putin because “the answer is measured not only in defence budgets, but also in lost lives, weakened security, disrupted economies and the price of rebuilding peace. Investing in deterrence today is far less expensive than paying for the consequences of aggression tomorrow.” “Supporting Ukraine is already increasing Europe’s security,” he went on, adding that “a Europe where Russia achieves its goals would be far more expensive than helping Ukraine succeed today.” EU leaders will grapple with the questions of defense spending and the bloc’s budget at no fewer than three summits later this year, including a European Council in November that is expected to last two days to negotiate points of contention. Estonia is investing more than 5 percent of GDP into defense, and has called on fellow NATO allies to do the same as soon as possible. All of them, apart from Spain, have committed to matching that target by 2035, and European countries are eager to show they are taking more responsibility for the defense of the continent ahead of a summit with U.S. President Donald Trump in Ankara next week. “Last year alone, European allies and Canada increased defence spending by 20 percent —more than $139 billion compared to the previous year,” said Michal. “We did not make these investments because we wanted to. Russia made us do it.” The meeting between Merz and the leaders of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania comes as the EU’s frontline states prepare for the NATO summit, which starts July 7. Allies are hoping to smooth over relations with Trump after he hit out at their hesitance to become embroiled in the war with Iran, with Washington weighing plans for potential further troop reductions. Countries will point to the additional $139 billion NATO members, excluding the U.S., spent this year on defense compared to the previous year and, one person familiar with the planning said, will announce “double-digit” billions in new procurement deals. “The message from Ankara must be clear: Europe is ready to take greater responsibility for its own security while keeping the transatlantic Alliance strong,” said Michal. “A stronger European pillar makes NATO stronger — and that benefits every ally.”

Some conservative European politicians are trying to rescue a relationship with President Donald Trump that has become surprisingly rocky over the past few months. They got their chance as about 20 right-leaning EU lawmakers came to Washington for a long-scheduled visit that has become particularly urgent since trans-Atlantic tensions spiked with the Iran war. “We have to overcome the frictions between the president and our prime minister, for sure,” said Carlo Fidanza, an Italian member of the EU parliament who was part of the group. “Our mission here can contribute to explain some of these positions to our American friends.” A number of recent incidents have highlighted strains between the MAGA camp and its European counterparts — a departure from the cozy relationship many expected at the start of Trump’s second term. Trump mocked Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni in June for what he claimed was “begging” for a photo together at the meeting of G7 economies, an incident she said was “completely made-up.” Days before, Jordan Bardella, the leader of France’s far-right National Rally party, rejected the idea of an endorsement from Trump should he run for president next year. And Germany’s AfD party shut down its high-profile appearances with Trump officials in March over skepticism of American military interventions. While the trip by the European parliamentarians — all from the EU’s right-leaning European Conservatives and Reformists Group — was planned well before these disputes, the lawmakers saw their visit as an opportunity for repair. “We don’t want to allow [the destruction] of the transatlantic relationship because we have lots of common interests,” said Patryk Jaki, a member of Poland’s right-wing Law and Justice party and the co-chair of the ECR Group. “In this moment, the general perception of European public opinion towards Trump, including conservative voters, is a bit dis-aligned,” said Fidanza, a member of Meloni’s Brothers of Italy party and leader of the ECR’s Italian delegation. The rift has been developing over many months. Trump’s threats to take over Greenland in January was “one of the first shockwaves,” said Mark Episkopos, a fellow focused on Eurasia at the Quincy Institute for Responsible Statecraft, a Washington think tank that favors military restraint. Nationalist parties who prize their own sovereignty were taken aback at what they saw as a hegemonic pursuit by the U.S., he said. Fidanza said the Greenland episode stunned members “of our political family,” particularly in Denmark. (Morten Messerschmidt, head of the right-wing Danish People’s Party, said at the time that Denmark will “under no circumstances tolerate” U.S. threats against it). There have been increased blows to the relationship since, ranging from Trump’s ongoing tariff threats to his demands that Europe support the U.S.-Israel war on Iran, to spiraling energy costs caused by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. Those issues have rankled Europe writ large, and offended the sensibilities of nationalist parties who saw it as Trump meddling in the continent’s affairs. The tensions don’t match up with the vision the Trump administration laid out late last year in its National Security Strategy, which praised “the growing influence of patriotic European parties” as potential salvation for a continent it sees as failing, and pledged to cultivate those groups. The White House didn’t respond to a request for comment. However, a senior administration official said “there’s always a vested interest in having world leaders who can work with the president, or who’s willing to work with the president and has shared ideals, and is willing to work with the U.S. on a number of issues.” Meloni, the official said, was “very critical” and “aggressive.” The official was granted anonymity to discuss the state of relations with right-wing leaders in Europe. State Department spokesperson Tommy Pigott said the administration’s approach to Europe still reflects the National Security Strategy, including “collaborating with European partners to jointly support European revitalization and civilizational self-confidence.” The Trump administration made a number of high-level staff available to meet with the visiting European delegation, including Undersecretary of State for Public Diplomacy Sarah Rogers, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Elbridge Colby and deputy national security adviser Andy Baker, the visitors said. The Pentagon and a spokesperson for Colby didn’t respond to a request for comment. The ECR visitors said they were encouraged by what they heard as the administration’s support for Ukraine as well as common ground on issues of migration, regulation and the perceived censorship of conservative voices. They also said they share a disdain with the U.S. for EU countries that haven’t answered Trump’s calls to increase their defense spending. “Unfortunately, we also have countries like Spain, who doesn’t care and is kind of free rider of other countries, and it’s very sad that we still in Europe have countries which don’t understand that they need to … pay for their own defense,” said Adam Bielan, an EU lawmaker in Poland’s Law and Justice party and the head of ECR’s Polish delegation. Still, the EU’s European Conservatives and Reformists Group reflects only a portion of Europe’s conservatives. Germany’s AfD or France’s National Rally are to its right, and neither of those parties were part of this week’s visit to Washington. National Rally lawmaker Alexandre Sabatou, who attended Trump’s inauguration, said in an interview that wars “are where he has disappointed me the most.” “We must stop thinking that the Americans will always be our friends, that they’ll always be there for us. We need to forge a French path — and extend it to Europe as well — we need to learn to stand on our own two feet,” Sabatou said. Sabatou did not address what could mend the relationship between France’s political right and the Trump administration. The AfD did not immediately respond to requests for comment, nor did the French and German embassies in Washington. One of the members of the ECR delegation, Assita Kanko of Belgium’s New Flemish Alliance, said it would be “a bit ambitious” to imagine that the trip had improved the EU-U.S. relationship. Nevertheless, she saw the meetings as a kind of family therapy. “We fight the most with people that we are the closest with,” she said. “It will hurt sometimes, but it’s part of the process of building a better and stronger relationship.” Poland’s Bielan said he hoped conversations with the administration could speed up the deployment of 5,000 American troops Trump pledged to send to Poland after the U.S. abruptly canceled the deployment of 4,200 troops to Poland in May. “I was mostly interested in our military relations and the possibility of establishing a permanent military base for Trump in Poland. My intuition tells me that we’ll hear some good news in the near future,” Bielan said, adding “I’m quite optimistic after these days in D.C.” Alexander Gray, who served as the National Security Council chief of staff in the first Trump administration, said American and European conservatives maintain overlapping interests. “We just don’t always agree, and that’s normal, and that’s healthy, and I don’t think that fundamentally changes the perspective that the NSS articulates for why the Trump administration was focused on right-wing parties,” he said. The administration has made a concerted effort over the course of Trump’s second term to connect with European fellow travelers. Vice President JD Vance stumped for Hungary’s defeated prime minister Viktor Orbán in April, and last year met with AfD’s Alice Weidel. Former Homeland Secretary Kristi Noem attended the Conservative Political Action Conference in Poland last year as well. Matt Schlapp, the chari of CPAC, pointed to an upcoming conference he planned for this month in the U.K. and possible additional gatherings in Germany and Italy as evidence that momentum was growing in Europe for shared conservative values. “It’s inevitable that there’s going to be a European perspective and an American perspective. They don’t always line up. I hope and trust they’ll line up on the big questions,” he said. Megan Messerly, Clea Caulcutt and Max Griera Andreu contributed to this report.

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