GMDC: Ukraine Won’t Join NATO

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*All this and more ahead!

Good Morning DC!

As the latest round of talks between Ukraine and Russia ended, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine should accept that it won’t join NATO. “Ukraine is not a member of Nato. We have heard for years that the doors were open, but we have also heard we could not join. It is a truth, and it must be recognized,” said Zelenskyy. 

What does Russia want?

“The neutral military status of Ukraine, security guarantees for all participants, the demilitarization of Ukraine, so that no threat to the Russian Federation ever comes from its territory,” said Lavrov.  

According to Ukrainian officials, the assessment is that the talks were positive, and this morning while interviewing on RBC TV, Lavrov said that some aspects of a peace deal are “close to agreement.”

At 9 am EST, Zelenskyy will address the members of the US Congress. 

HAVE YOUR SAY

How serious should we take Putin’s talk of nuclear weapons?

THE WHITE HOUSE

Today at the White House, Biden will make an announcement on the assistance the United States is providing Ukraine. 

In the afternoon, he will speak at the event in the East Room which celebrates the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).  

In the evening, the President will attend the Ireland Funds 30^th National Gala at the National Building Museum in Washington, DC. 

DIGITAL ASSETS

At the SXSW conference, Mark Zuckerberg said that in the coming months he will open Instagram for NFTs. 

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FOREIGN AFFAIRS

NATO’s defense ministers are meeting in Brussels today and Biden will attend the NATO summit on March 24. 

Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe (43), a British-Iranian woman who has been held in Iran since 2016 on charges of plotting to overthrow the government, has had her British passport finally returned and is on her way to Britian. PM Boris Johnson said last night that the conversation around her case was “delicate.”

PM Boris Johnson is at the United Arab Emirates today. Johnson wants to undo UK’s dependency on Russia’s oil “to avoid being blackmailed by Putin.” His plan is to try and talk to other oil producers like Saudi Arabia and see if the oil supply could come from them instead of Russia. 

And that’s a wrap for this Wednesday morning, March 16 2022. Good Morning DC will be back tomorrow to bring you the latest first. 

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