Closing summary
Vladimir Putin praised North Korea for “firmly supporting” Moscow’s war in Ukraine, as he travelled to Pyongyang to seek continued military support from the isolated country. In his first visit to North Korea since 2000, Putin will meet Kim Jong-un for one-on-one talks on Tuesday evening (local time). Putin vowed to deepen trade and security ties with North Korea and to support it against the US. The US state department said it was “quite certain” Putin would be seeking arms to support his war in Ukraine. In a letter published by North Korean state media ahead of his planned visit, the Russian president wrote: “We will develop alternative mechanisms of trade and mutual settlements that are not controlled by the west, and jointly resist illegitimate unilateral restrictions. And at the same time – we will build an architecture of equal and indivisible security in Eurasia.” Tomorrow will be the key day of his state visit, when there will be an official ceremony and Putin will reportedly receive a guard of honour.
South Korean defence minister Shin Wonsik said in an interview with Bloomberg News that Seoul had identified at least 10,000 shipping containers suspected to be containing artillery ammunition and other weapons sent from North Korea to Russia. Those containers could contain as much as 4.8m shells, Shin said.
China urged Nato to “stop shifting blame” over the war in Ukraine after the western military alliance’s chief accused Beijing of worsening the conflict through support of Russia.
Hungary and Slovakia gave their support to the candidacy of Mark Rutte as the next secretary-general of Nato, an important step for the outgoing Dutch prime minister towards securing the top job. Nato takes decisions by consensus, so any candidate needs the support of all 32 allies. Only Romania, whose President Klaus Iohannis is also vying for the job, is still opposed to Rutte’s candidacy.
Ukraine claimed responsibility for an overnight drone attack on an oil facility in Russia’s Rostov region that started a massive blaze in the latest long-range strike by Kyiv’s forces on a border region.
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Updated
Viktor Orbán confirms support for Mark Rutte as next Nato chief
Hungary’s prime minister, has said he supports outgoing Dutch prime minister Mark Rutte to replace Jens Stoltenberg as Nato’s next secretary general (see earlier post at 09.34 for more details).
Rutte would be the fourth Dutchman to hold the post if he is chosen as the alliance’s 13th secretary general. He must now only secure the backing of Romania, whose President Klaus Iohannis also wants the role.
Hungary’s backing follows a meeting Orbán had with Stoltenberg last week, in which the two sides agreed that Hungary would not block Nato decisions on providing support for Ukraine but has agreed that it would not be involved.
Following the recent European elections, where Hungarians voted in huge numbers in favour of #peace, we reached an important agreement with #NATO Secretary General @jensstoltenberg . We agreed that no Hungarian personnel will take part in the activities of NATO in Ukraine and no… pic.twitter.com/Cliu4rZGCE
— Orbán Viktor (@PM_ViktorOrban) June 18, 2024
Slovakia also gave its support to Rutte today. Orbán had earlier opposed Rutte’s candidacy because he had expressed “problematic” opinions that included the idea that Hungary should leave the EU.
Updated
