Axios

In a meeting with Pakistan’s Chief of Naval Staff in Beijing on Friday, Chinese Defense Minister Wei Fenghe announced that China was “ready to provide security guarantees for the One Belt, One Road project” (OBOR).

Why it matters: Beijing has long pitched OBOR — a $4 trillion–$8 trillion integrated energy, transport and mega infrastructure project envisioned as a modern Silk Road — in economic terms. But this latest statement contrasts with Beijing’s earlier rhetoric, suggesting that the project has more important defense-related motives.

Sri Lanka's economy is struggling under the weight of massive debts owed to China, with the rupee hitting an all-time low on Monday.

The big picture: As the small South Asian country's economy spirals downward, it's freeing itself from debts by selling Chinese-funded infrastructure projects back to China, giving Beijing influence over strategic ports close to its rival India's shores.

Government officials are considering sanctions barring Kaspersky Lab from doing business in the U. S., CyberScoop reports.

Kaspersky's products have already been barred from federal systems as an alleged security risk, with reports the company's computer security software had been hijacked by Russian intelligence operatives to steal U.S. secrets. The company denies knowing involvement in any such scheme.

Last week, Kim Jong-un set the stage for upcoming summits with South Korea and the U.S. by announcing the suspension of North Korea's nuclear and long-range missile tests and the closure of its northern nuclear test site.

The big picture: Although Kim’s move is clever, we have been here before, and it does not change the game. North Korea may have no need of another nuclear test in the near future — there hasn't been one since September — and Kim knows that this concession is the bare minimum he will need to offer at his meeting with Trump.

The run-up to the U.S. and allied missile strikes in Syria last week brought the U.S. and Russia closer to a direct military collision than they've been since the early 1980s. The strikes themselves turned out to be limited and carefully executed, but Syria remains a volatile arena for U.S.–Russia relations.

The big picture: While the proxy war in Syria does hold the potential for a clash between U.S. and Russian forces, it is only one of several theaters in which a larger conflict between the two countries is playing out.

Kaspersky Lab identified a large number of servers used as infrastructure for a hacking campaign widely believed to be run by the Kremlin. One of those servers belongs to a Russian opposition party.

The background: Energetic Bear, also known as Dragonfly or Crouching Yeti, is a Russian-speaking hacking group targeting the energy sector and other industrial systems. Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab does not traditionally attribute attacks to governments, but many observers — including the U.S. government — believe that Energetic Bear is an espionage operation conducted by Russia.

Eurasia Group founder Ian Bremmer, whose new book, "Us vs. Them: The Failure of Globalism," is out tomorrow, broke down North Korean leader Kim Jong-un's recent promises to shut down his country's nuclear and missile testing for Axios.

The bottom line: With his trademark (non)-punctuation, Bremmer writes Axios future editor Steve LeVine, "kim wants to look solicitous right before the s korea and us summits. important for him that they go well — and it’s implausible that he’s actually going to denuclearize."

This week in Washington will be dominated by two foreign visitors: French President Emmanuel Macron and his wife's visit will culminate with the first state dinner of Trump's presidency at the White House on Tuesday night — then, on Friday, Trump hosts German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

What we're hearing: Macron hopes to persuade Trump to work with the Europeans to fix the Iran nuclear deal rather than to follow his instincts and tear up the deal next month by reimposing American sanctions on Iran.

In a phone call last year with Bibi Netanyahu, President Trump said something that shocked some of the people who helped prepare his briefing materials for the conversations. According to three sources familiar with the call, Trump asked Bibi bluntly if he actually cares about peace or not.

The details: Trump was pressing Bibi on the importance of striking a "deal" for Mideast peace. He'd read news reports about Bibi planning to build additional settlements to please his conservative base in Israel. Trump thought Bibi was unnecessarily angering the Palestinians. So, in the course of a longer conversation that was mostly friendly and complimentary, he bluntly asked Bibi whether or not he genuinely wants peace.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday defended the international Iran nuclear deal in an interview with Israeli TV, saying that while she understands Israel’s “great worries,” a partial framework is better than no agreement at all, AP reports.

Why it matters: Her defense comes ahead of a May 12 deadline, which President Trump set to withdraw from the agreement unless the deal's other major European signatories — Germany, France, and the United Kingdom — agree to enact "significant changes.”

Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin is expected to lead the United States' delegation to the inauguration ceremony of the new American embassy in Jerusalem on May 14th, Israeli officials told me.

The big picture: The Israeli Foreign Ministry and Prime Minister's office have started to prepare for the embassy event and for welcoming the delegation. The officials added the Israeli government wants to use the event to give diplomatic boost to U.S.-Israeli relations and to the Israeli efforts to convince other countries to move their embassies to Jerusalem. On May 16th, Guatemala is expected to move its embassy from Tel-Aviv to Jerusalem.

In a morning tweet, President Trump again addressed yesterday's news that North Korea would stop its nuclear and intercontinental ballistic missile testing — and incorrectly claimed that the nation had also agreed to denuclearize.

Flashback: While it's possible that Trump knows something that we don't, a Bush 43 National Security Council official broke down yesterday's concessions for Axios: "Not a big deal to pause testing nuclear or missiles when summit is coming ... Totally reversible. Eye wash."

Multiple states lack the ability to guarantee the accuracy of election outcomes in the event of a suspected breach.

The big picture: Five states — Louisiana, Georgia, South Carolina, New Jersey and Delaware — have no paper trails of votes. The other nine are in better shape, but still do not have all their counties’ machines spitting out a paper record.