The United States is sending a large amount of weapons to Ukraine, which is being invaded by Russia, based on a huge budget. There is a growing possibility that the U.S. Congress will not pass the budget for support and will run out by the end of the year. The U.S.-led support for Ukraine since the military invasion in February last year may be at a turning point. This is the way we see it.
This is a commentary by "Top News in the World" by Shoichiro Beppu, a caster.
(Broadcast on December 2)
* The video is 12 minutes 7 seconds and cannot be viewed in the data broadcast.
The focus of the issue is the response of the US Congress, and in this case the Senate.
In October, the Biden administration requested an emergency budget of more than $10 billion from Congress, including for support for Ukraine and Israel.
However, the Senate voted on whether to proceed with deliberations on the morning of the 1th, Japan time, but this did not receive the necessary approval, and at this point it is not even possible to start deliberations.
In the background is the critical stance of some opposition parties and the Republican Party against the huge amount of support.
Roughly speaking, the argument is to the effect that "the US budget is for the US domestic use, not that we are allocating a lot of budget only to Ukraine forever, even though we have various problems in the United States".
Under these circumstances, the Republican Party is bringing up the issue of illegal immigration, and in order to agree to the budget, it is conditional on strengthening border control with Mexico.
The issue of illegal immigration is certainly an important issue in the United States.
These domestic issues are intertwined with foreign policy issues, which makes it difficult to negotiate the budget.
If talks are not reached and Congress does not approve a new budget, the support Ukraine needs will be dealt a major blow.
At the same time, the large-scale counteroffensive that the Ukrainian army has been conducting since June has not been able to make significant progress after six months, and has come to a standstill.
Some have pointed out that it is failing.
Under these circumstances, there is concern that support from the United States will be interrupted.
The British economic magazine The Economist describes the situation as "the United States, which was the biggest savior for Ukraine, has now become the biggest worry."
The G7 = summit of seven major countries, including Prime Minister Kishida of Japan, was held online on the evening of the 7th, and President Zelensky, who was invited to the summit, said, "Russia will expect the unity of the free world to be fragile next year. He appealed to the G6 countries to continue their support.
"Support fatigue" in Europe and the United States, which has been a concern for some time, will
it finally come to the fore in a big way?
There is a great deal of interest in the actions of the U.S. Senate.