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From the SitRoom to the E-Ring, the inside scoop on defense, national security and foreign policy. | | | | |  | | By Alexander Ward, Matt Berg and Ari Hawkins | |  National security adviser Jake Sullivan’s note makes clear that there’s some internal high-fiving going on after last weekend’s gathering in Hiroshima. | Patrick Semansky/AP | With help from Lara Seligman and Daniel Lippman Subscribe here | Email Alex | Email Matt FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY –– The Biden administration “defied the cynics and critics” with its performance at the G-7, national security adviser JAKE SULLIVAN wrote in a note to his team Wednesday. The email, obtained by NatSec Daily, is a rare look inside the guarded internal communications of the National Security Council. In the message sent to all staff just before 2 p.m., Sullivan is at once beaming with pride and defiant toward those who expected the gathering in Japan to be a dud, especially with debit-limit drama at home. In his view, the outcomes exceeded expectations –– and then some. He lists five main results of the summit: showing unity for a clean-energy agenda despite transatlantic frictions over the Inflation Reduction Act; displaying that the nations were “for de-risking and diversifying, not decoupling,” from China; confirming the bloc’s “unshakable resolve” in supporting Ukraine against Russia; updating a “toolkit” to protect sensitive technologies, including more coordination on export controls; and putting billions down for an “ambitious and affirmative development agenda.” “On each, we defied the cynics and critics who had doubted our commitment and capacity to lead the way on the most pressing challenges facing our nations,” Sullivan wrote. The note doesn’t touch upon the persistent split-screen of the G-7, which had President JOE BIDEN meeting global counterparts in Hiroshima while the country he leads neared a first-ever default on the national debt. That crisis took attention away from the gathering’s deliverables, and literally took Biden away from some meetings so he could receive briefings on negotiations back home. It’s also unclear if Sullivan’s listed accomplishments will hold over time. For example, the U.S. and Europe say they’ll cooperate in the green-tech space, but Washington and Brussels are mainly preparing for competition. And if Biden loses his reelection bid in 2024, it’s hard to imagine that a Republican president will continue down the climate-fighting path that this administration is on. European officials are already preparing for such a prospect. Still, Sullivan’s note makes clear that there’s some internal high-fiving going on after last weekend’s gathering in Hiroshima. The joint statement on China was particularly stunning, given many of the G-7 members’ reticence to openly lambasting Beijing, though its support for Russia’s invasion of Ukraine provided an opening for critique. Despite the tough talk, Biden did predict a “thaw” in U.S.-China relations during a news conference there. And those who know Sullivan say he’s not one to dole out compliments lightly, let alone to his whole team. It suggests that he is truly satisfied with the result of the long hours and late nights of work.
| | WAGNER DEATH TOLL IN BAKHMUT: More than 20,000 troops from the Wagner paramilitary group died in the during the fight for Bakhmut, the bloodiest battle of the war in Ukraine so far, Wagner leader YEVGENY PRIGOZHIN said. Prigozhin said that about half of those were Russian convicts he had recruited to fight in the war, the Associated Press’ SUSIE BLANN and JOANNA KOZLOWSKA reports. His estimate is a stark contrast to figures from the Kremlin, which has claimed that only 6,000 Russians have been killed. The Wagner chief also said Moscow’s forces have killed civilians — a claim the Kremlin has repeatedly denied. Meanwhile, Russian forces shot down “a large number” of drones over the southern Belgorod region following the raid by a far-right militia earlier this week, Russian officials said. During that attack, the members apparently used three U.S.-made armored vehicles, two of which were captured by Russian forces, the New York Times’ RILEY MELLEN reported. The Biden administration is checking if the militia used U.S. military vehicles and equipment to fight Moscow’s forces at home. "We're looking into those reports,” NSC spokesperson JOHN KIRBY told reporters Wednesday. "We've been pretty darn clear we don't support the use of U.S. made equipment for attacks inside Russia, and that's including we've been clear about that with the Ukrainians.” Per the Financial Times, the group used “at least two M1224 MaxxPro armored vehicles and several Humvees.” Read: Ukraine and NATO: Will they or won’t they? by our own SUZANNE LYNCH IRAN WILL COOPERATE ON ‘NEW ACTIVITIES’: A recent report by the Associated Press showed Iran was building a nuclear facility so deep underground that American bombs couldn’t destroy it. Now, Iran’s nuclear chief says Tehran will certainly cooperate with inspectors interested in the “new activities” in Natanz. “The Islamic Republic of Iran is working under the IAEA safeguards, and whenever wants to start new activities, it will coordinate with the IAEA, and act accordingly,” MOHAMMAD ESLAMI told reporters Wednesday, using an acronym for the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. “Further inspections are important, but as long as there is no diplomatic path back to imposing constraints on Iran’s nuclear program, uncertainty about its nuclear intentions remains, as well as the possibility of military escalation,” DALIA DASSA KAYE, a senior fellow at UCLA’s Burkle Center for International Relations, told NatSec Daily. “Constructing an underground facility at Natanz is only likely to increase that uncertainty.” RUSSIA’S AFRICA GALA: Russia’s ambassador in the U.S. hosted a gala for his African counterparts on Tuesday night, TASS reports, courting the continent’s nations as Moscow seeks friends following its invasion of Ukraine. "We are firmly committed to developing strategic partnership with our African friends, work together to promote fair and equal relations, improve mechanisms of mutually beneficial economic ties," ANATOLY ANTONOV said during the event at his embassy, organized as a networking event ahead of the July Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg. "Through our joint efforts, the continent will become one of the leaders of the emerging multipolar world order. We will counter the neocolonialist ideology that is being imposed by the others. That event comes months after the Biden administration held an Africa summit in D.C., mainly with an eye toward luring countries away from China’s orbit. ‘CLEAR DECISIONS’: Latvian Prime Minister KRIŠJĀNIS KARIŅŠ is calling for NATO to agree to put its troops where its mouth is on deterrence. “Deterrence has to be credible,” the Latvian leader told our own LILI BAYER in an interview during a visit to NATO headquarters. “And credible means actual forces, actual capabilities, and a clear command structure to coordinate everything in an emergency.” NATO leaders need to make “clear decisions” to continue strengthening the alliance’s eastern flank during their upcoming summit in Vilnius. “We've come a very, very long way,” Kariņš continued, adding that more work needs to be done to prepositions forces and increase the number of troops in Europe. Meanwhile, Danish Prime Minister METTE FREDERIKSEN’s invitation to the White House has some speculating that she might be a White House favorite to be NATO’s next secretary general, Bayer also reports. IT’S WEDNESDAY: Thanks for tuning in to NatSec Daily. This space is reserved for the top U.S. and foreign officials, the lawmakers, the lobbyists, the experts and the people like you who care about how the natsec sausage gets made. Aim your tips and comments at award@politico.com and mberg@politico.com, and follow us on Twitter at @alexbward and @mattberg33. While you’re at it, follow the rest of POLITICO’s national security team: @nahaltoosi, @PhelimKine, @laraseligman, @connorobrienNH, @paulmcleary, @leehudson, @magmill95, @johnnysaks130, @ErinBanco, @reporterjoe and @_AriHawkins.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Using Artificial Intelligence to help firefighters better detect, predict and fight wildfires.
Lockheed Martin is collaborating with commercial companies to integrate our technologies and expertise with their capabilities to help first responders detect, predict and fight wildfires. Learn more. | | | | | PENCE: NO TRANS TROOPS: Former vice president and likely 2024 presidential candidate MIKE PENCE said he would reinstitute a ban on transgender Americans participating in the U.S. military if he’s elected president. "The introduction of transgender soldiers in the military has not contributed to our readiness and ultimately is a distraction," Pence told ANDREW RAFFERTY from Scripps News in an interview Tuesday evening from Iowa. He added that the ban would be for the purpose of “unit cohesion.” The policy to ban transgender Americans from the U.S. military was instituted by former President DONALD TRUMP, then reversed by President JOE BIDEN after he took office. Pence also criticized what he called Trump’s “shifting positions on foreign policy,” saying his former boss wavered on his support for Kyiv. “VLADMIR PUTIN is not stopping at Ukraine if he overruns that country, and it would not take long for him to reach the border of a country we would have an obligation under NATO to send our military in to contend with,” he said.
| | ‘AS BAD AS NUCLEAR WEAPONS’: Artificial intelligence has been used to save lives on the battlefield, but left unchecked, it could be “as bad as nuclear weapons,” Rep. SETH MOULTON (D-Mass.) warns in the Boston Globe. Moulton further called for a “Geneva Convention for AI” to create international guidelines for the use of AI in warfare, such as ensuring that a human is always involved in the decision to use lethal force, as bad actors including China and Russia could use autonomous weapons to threaten humans, he said. OpenAI, the company that created ChatGPT, made a similar plea this week. When asked about what DoD has done to address AI’s looming threat, Moulton told NatSec Daily that “I don't think they've done much of anything … I talked to two service chiefs in the past week who both said the Pentagon’s way behind on this. They've got no direction whatsoever. No guidance.” It’s worth noting that the DoD recently updated its autonomous weapons directive to follow the department's AI Ethical Principles policy, and military officials have repeatedly said there will always be a “human in the loop” when it comes to autonomous weapons killing people.
| | | | GET READY FOR GLOBAL TECH DAY: Join POLITICO Live as we launch our first Global Tech Day alongside London Tech Week on Thursday, June 15. Register now for continuing updates and to be a part of this momentous and program-packed day! From the blockchain, to AI, and autonomous vehicles, technology is changing how power is exercised around the world, so who will write the rules? REGISTER HERE. | | | | | | | | VIRTUAL RAMSTEIN MEETING: Defense Secretary LLOYD AUSTIN is slated Thursday to lead the next meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, the group of international defense chiefs working to arm Ukraine. The leaders will discuss the security situation in Ukraine, Kyiv’s most urgent needs such as ground-based air defense and ammunition, as well as F-16 training, Brig. Gen. PATRICK RYDER, the Pentagon’s top spokesperson, said on Tuesday. PENTAGON PROBLEMS: Rep. MICHAEL WALTZ (R-Fla.) believes the Pentagon has two major problems related to industry: it’s too focused on investing in the latest tech and doesn’t hold anyone to account when systems fail. “The Pentagon and the big contractors are often focused on buying the next Ferrari, the next high-end stealth fighter, but then they don't focus on all the spare parts and sustainment over time,” the HASC member said on Fox News Wednesday morning while discussing the Defense Department being price gouged by defense contractors.
| | | FIRST IN NATSEC DAILY –– DEFAULT RISK: More than 50 Democrats on Wednesday requested a briefing from SecDef Austin about the national security risk of the threat of defaulting on the national debt. “We ask you to brief us on the dangers to our national security posed by failing to promptly raise the debt ceiling,” the lawmakers, led by Reps. BRADLEY SCHNEIDER (D-Ill.) and AMI BERA (D-Calif.), wrote in a letter to the secretary, laying the blame for the risk at Speaker KEVIN McCARTHY’s feet. Among the 52 signatories are Reps. STENY HOYER (D-Md.) and GREGORY MEEKS (D-N.Y.), the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. It’s likely Austin would tell the House members something similar to his 2021 statement on the exact same issue: “If the United States defaults, it would undermine the economic strength on which our national security rests.”
| | HYPERSONIC SPY?: A leading Russian scientist was accused of handing over classified information about Moscow’s hypersonic missiles program to China, Reuters’ FILIPP LEBEDEV, LUCY PAPACHRISTOU and MARK TREVELYAN report. ALEXANDER SHIPLYUK, the head of Siberia's Khristianovich Institute of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics, or ITAM, claims he’s innocent, insisting that the information he allegedly handed over was available online. Shiplyuk was arrested in August, making him one of the latest in a string of detentions by Russian authorities over alleged spying for China. Two other hypersonic missile technology experts were detained around the same time. Russia’s parliament voted in April to increase the penalty for treason to life from 20 years. A new draft law from Russia’s lower house claims 48 Russians have been convicted of treason from 2017 to 2022. Shiplyuk’s case is considered top secret and therefore his trial will take place behind closed doors. CHARM OFFENSIVE FALLS FLAT: Europe’s diplomatic efforts to convince neutrally minded Latin America to provide support for Ukraine against Russia have mostly been rebuffed so far, our own CRISTINA GALLARDO, SUZANNE LYNCH and HANS VON DER BURCHARD report. Both Chile and Brazil have hundreds of the German-made Leopard tanks of the type the West has given to Ukraine in recent months. But a bilateral meeting between Ukrainian President VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY and LUIZ INÁCIO LULA DA SILVA was canceled due to scheduling reasons, Zelenskyy told reporters. U.K. Foreign Secretary JAMES CLEVERLY was the latest to try his hand in Brazil, on Wednesday, during the final day of a weeklong tour of Latin America. But ahead of the visit, a Brazilian official ruled out any increase in support for Kyiv. And asked if Britain could persuade Chile to supply military aid to Ukraine, a Chilean official said: “Not gonna happen, not at all … It’s a topic that needs to be solved by the big powers, not something we can do from the end of the world.”
| | | | DON’T MISS POLITICO’S HEALTH CARE SUMMIT: The Covid-19 pandemic helped spur innovation in health care, from the wide adoption of telemedicine, health apps and online pharmacies to mRNA vaccines. But what will the next health care innovations look like? Join POLITICO on Wednesday June 7 for our Health Care Summit to explore how tech and innovation are transforming care and the challenges ahead for access and delivery in the United States. REGISTER NOW. | | | | | | | | | — MEGAN LAMBERTH, formerly an associate fellow at the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security, has joined Datenna as an associate director of strategy and analysis. — KEVIN MASSEY was named the inaugural chief operating officer of the Purdue Applied Research Institute. At Leidos, he led the aerophysics branch’s researchers in hypersonic weapons, air-to-air missiles and reentry vehicles. — PETE MODIGLIANI, formerly a defense acquisition specialist at MITRE, has joined Beacon Global Strategies as a vice president. — HOWIE WACHTEL has joined Microsoft as a senior director and head of U.N. and international organizations policy in New York. He most recently was a senior director and head of global sanctions policy at PayPal, and spent the previous decade in various roles at the NSC, State Department and the U.S. mission to the U.N.
| | — NICK TURSE, The Intercept: Kissinger’s killing fields — PETER HUMPHREY, POLITICO: China’s new anti-spy law is just the beginning — LINDSAY KOSHGARIAN, ALLIYAH LUSUEGRO, and ASHIK SIDDIQUE, Institute for Policy Studies: The warfare state: how funding for militarism compromises our welfare
| | | |   | | | | | — Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, 4:30 a.m.: Launch of IEA’s World Energy Investment 2023 Report — Peterson Institute for International Economics, 9 a.m.: Where is the CPTPP heading? — House Intelligence Committee, 9 a.m.: Foreign Materiel Acquisition/Exploitation — Wilson Center, 10 a.m.: Beyond Debt Traps: The Co-Production of China-Latin America Relations — Hudson Institute, 11 a.m.: Imprisoned in Nicaragua: A Conversation with FRANCISCO AGUIRRE-SACASA — Cato Institute, 12 p.m.: Five Years of EU's General Data Protection Regulation: Impact and Lessons Learned — Washington Institute for Near East Policy, 12:30 p.m.: Turkey's Presidential Runoff: What to Expect May 28 and After — Center for Strategic and International Studies, 2 p.m.: The U.S. Role in Indo-Pacific Security: A Conversation with ELY RATNER and SIDDHARTH MOHANDAS — Atlantic Council, 2 p.m.: Africa Day 2023: A conversation with Congress Thanks to our editor, Heidi Vogt, who never sends us emails about how well we’re doing. We also thank our producer, Gregory Svirnovskiy, to whom Sullivan will surely soon send a “well done” note.
| | A message from Lockheed Martin: Using Artificial Intelligence to help firefighters better detect, predict and fight wildfires.
Lockheed Martin is collaborating with commercial companies to integrate our technologies and expertise with their capabilities to help first responders detect, predict and fight wildfires. Learn more. | | | | | | | Follow us on Twitter | | | | Follow us | | | | |  |
