Great briefings at NATO in Brussels on how Europe is stepping up to invest in its own defense and how NATO is collectively building its industrial base. I also met with the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

At LASK Airbase where Poland will station F-35’s it purchased for itself, I witnessed part of the significant investments on behalf of the US military underway throughout the nation funded by Poland.

A collaboration among 11 European countries and the US operating in Papa, Hungary provide airlift capacity to nations not large enough to afford an independent capability. This collaboration among Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Hungary, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Sweden and the US funds base facilities and three C-17 airlift planes in proportion to each country’s usage. The staffing is also shared proportionately.

Impressive base with many capabilities including the only fighter wing south of the Alps.

Having just hitched a ride over the Atlantic on a United States Air Force C-17 (behind me), two days of briefings convinced me that the US Air Force's Ramstein Air Base in Germany is indeed America's "Global Gateway."

Blinken’s visit comes after repeated warnings by the U.S. government that it may widen its sanctions against Russia to include Chinese banks that have facilitated trade. “The United States has already given ample warning that this could happen, “Mark Kennedy, director of the Wilson Center think tank’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, told Nikkei Asia. “I haven’t seen anything come back from China suggesting that they’re paying attention to those warnings.”

“The general view by many lawyers from multiple countries is that if this decision is made by international bodies, that it is an ‘authorized taking,’ whether it be the pledge against loans or just expropriating the assets themselves,” Mark Kennedy, director of the Wilson Center’s Wahba Institute for Strategic Competition, told VOA. “I think it is going to happen in some way, shape or form, though whether it's near term or not is yet to be seen,” he said. “There’s a feeling that this is appropriate justice, vis-a-vis Russia.

“Abandoning the Ukraine struggle that is central to European security would embolden Xi Jinping in Asia as it suggests a lack of enduring American resolve to defend freedom and support allies.”

"In past conflicts related to Israel, the United States was a key material aid provider, but it has never directly intervene in the war. Therefore, the United States’ focus on East Asia and the military resources invested in East Asia will not be distracted.” "The United States recently moved an aircraft carrier to the sea off Israel. Its purpose was to warn Iran and Russia not to intervene in the war, but this aircraft carrier has always been in the Middle East. The United States Navy has strategic deployments in the Middle East and East Asia. The Ukraine and Israel Conflict will not tip the balance in which the United States is now focused on East Asia."

Panel included Philip Zelikow, Professor of History at the University of Virginia and Distinguished Visiting Fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institution and Robert Zoellick, US Trade Representative from 2001 to 2005 and President of the World Bank from 2007 to 2012.

As NATO committed to work together to address the systemic challenges posed by the PRC to Euro-Atlantic security, the most important action the alliance can take is to stay unified, said Mark Kennedy, director of the Wahba Institute of Strategic Competition at the Wilson Center. “That was exhibited in the communique,” he told VOA. “The key will be to translate these commitments into reality.”