On this Washington Roundtable episode of the Defense & Aerospace Report Podcast, sponsored by Bell, our guests are Dov Zakheim, PhD, former DoD comptroller, now with the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Dr. Patrick Cronin of the Hudson Institute, Jim Townsend, a former deputy assistant secretary of defense for Europe and NATO who is now with the Center for a New American Security and Michael Herson of American Defense International.

Topics:

— Update on Senate version of National Defense Authorization Act and appropriations process

— CHIPS-USICA, Reconciliation and Build Back Better sagas

— Ukrainian First Lady Olena Zelenskyy’s visit to Washington and congressional support for Kyiv

— Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov’s statement that Moscow’s plan is to seize more Ukrainian territory than Donbas and Luhansk

— EU moves to curb demand for Russian energy as Moscow restarts gas flows to Europe to demonstrate Vladimir Putin’s leverage and divide the alliance

— Whether this is President Biden’s “Berlin Airlift” moment to quickly ship oil and gas to Europe to counter Russia’s weaponization of energy supplies

— China’s alliance with Russia and the new weapons Beijing is preparing to field

— Chinese reaction to reports at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., is planning to visit Taiwan

— Sri Lanka’s instability and implications for the region

— Tehran meeting of Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Turkey’s Recip Tayip Erdogan and Putin

— Assessment of Biden’s Saudi Arabia visit