MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – US Daily Brief 16-05-22

Executive Summary:

• Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) is the latest high-profile US lawmaker to travel to Kyiv to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. McConnell told reporters in Sweden that he expects the USD$40 billion Ukraine aid package to pass with strong bipartisan support this week.
• Former President Donald Trump had this to say on Ukraine aid: ‘The Democrats are sending another $40 billion to Ukraine, yet America’s parents are struggling to even feed their children.’
  • There’s a cloture vote in the US Senate on the bill today to set up a final vote on the package for Wednesday.
• US Secretary of State Blinken confirmed that food security will be on the UN Security Council agenda: ‘Later this week in New York, we will be convening an emergency session of the UN Security Council and also the foreign ministers to focus on the steps that we can take...'
• Blinken also told reporters that the he is confident that Ankara will not block Nordic NATO bids. ‘…I did have a chance to talk to my Turkish counterpart, the foreign minister. When it comes to Sweden and Finland and their potential accession to NATO, this is a process. And NATO is a place for dialogue...'
• The Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles in June is looking like a potentially fruitless exercise for expanding discourse in the region. If Mexico and Brazil boycott the event then half the Latin America's population will not be represented at the conference.

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MNI POLITICAL RISK ANALYSIS – US Daily Brief 16-05-22 .pdf