The Brief Allies sent conflicting signals on Russia at the G20, and the global rearmament boom kept pulling arms suppliers apart rather than together.
G20 Sends Mixed Signals on Russia
- The US approved a $2.1 billion Patriot missile sale to Ukraine as Secretary of State Marco Rubio engaged Russian officials at the G20 in Atlanta, where other delegations pointedly snubbed Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov — following earlier reports that the Pentagon pushed NATO allies to soften their public tone on Moscow (more).
- British Foreign Secretary Ed Miliband told the summit Russia "will not win this war," drawing a Kremlin jab at the gathering as "family photo diplomacy" — a harder line than the one Washington is reported to prefer (more).
Rearmament Pulls the Arms Trade Apart
- Pakistan's JF-17 fighter is winning export orders that squeeze India's Tejas out of the same markets, even as India's own self-reliance drive still leaves it dependent on imported weapons.
- Britain now requires foreign defense contractors to invest locally before they can sell into the UK, and Southeast Asian states are racing to build their own weapons industries rather than keep buying from outside suppliers — a pattern an analysis says is splitting the arms trade into rival industrial blocs (more).
