The future of Ukraine<\/a> is the top item on the agenda at the Munich Security Conference following\u00a0a phone call between U.S. President Donald Trump<\/a> and Russian leader Vladimir Putin this week, when they pledged to work together to end the three-year-old Russia-Ukraine conflict.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n U.S. Vice President JD Vance hammered home the U.S. demand that the NATO alliance step up defence spending on Friday, ahead of a security meeting in Europe at a time of intense concern and uncertainty\u00a0over the Trump administration\u2019s foreign policy.<\/p>\n Vance\u00a0is expected to meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy later Friday for talks that many observers, particularly in Europe, hope will shed at least some light on\u00a0Trump\u2019s ideas for a negotiated settlement\u00a0to the war.<\/p>\n Vance\u00a0started his day in Munich meeting separately with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier and British foreign secretary David Lammy.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n He used the engagements to reiterate the Republican Trump administration\u2019s call for NATO members to spend more on defence. Currently, 23 of NATO\u2019s 32 member nations are hitting the Western military alliance\u2019s target of spending two per cent of the nation\u2019s GDP on defence.<\/p>\n \u201cNATO is a very important military alliance, of course, that we\u2019re the most significant part of,\u201d\u00a0Vance\u00a0told Rutte.<\/p>\n \u201cBut we want to make sure that NATO is actually built for the future, and we think a big part of that is ensuring that NATO does a little bit more burden sharing in Europe, so the United States can focus on some of our challenges in East Asia.\u201d<\/p>\n Rutte said he agreed that Europe needs to step up.<\/p>\n \u201cWe have to grow up in that sense and spend much more,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Trump, who\u00a0upended years of steadfast U.S. support\u00a0for Ukraine during his call with Putin on Wednesday, has been vague about his specific intentions \u2014 other than suggesting that a deal will likely result in\u00a0Ukraine being forced to cede territory\u00a0that Russia has seized since it annexed Crimea in 2014.<\/p>\n Story continues below advertisement<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n \u201cThe Ukraine war has to end,\u201d Trump told reporters Thursday. \u201cYoung people are being killed at levels that nobody\u2019s seen since World War II. And it\u2019s a ridiculous war.\u201d<\/p>\n Get the day’s top news, political, economic, and current affairs headlines, delivered to your inbox once a day.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n Trump\u2019s musings have\u00a0left Europeans in a quandary, wondering how \u2014 or even if \u2014 they can maintain the post-WWII security that NATO afforded them or fill the gap in the\u00a0billions of dollars of security assistance\u00a0that the Democratic Biden administration provided to Ukraine since Russia\u2019s February 2022 invasion.<\/p>\n Trump has been highly skeptical of that aid and is expected to cut or otherwise limit it as negotiations get underway in the coming days.<\/p>\n![\"Get](\"https:\/\/globalnews.ca\/wp-content\/themes\/shaw-globalnews\/images\/skyline\/national.jpg\")
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