Under the gathering uncertainties, European leaders gathered for defense summit at Brussels. The unexpected winner, however, is the US president Donald Trump, whosessecond term at White Househhas taken the world by a storm. Economic and trade policies, foreign policies, international accords, bilateral, multilateral relations, andoof course, the policies of previous US government are – all upended. For a long time, the US and president Donald Trump wants European countries to increase their spending on defense. Many a times, he has threatened funding to NATO. This meeting saw European leaders backing plan to spend more on defense.
Reuter reported that the leaders hailed the European Commission’s proposal this week to give them fiscal flexibility on defense spending, and to jointly borrow up to 150 billion euros to lend to EU governments to spend on their militaries.
It should be remember that NATO itself came into existence to reduce financial burden on Europe for its security after WW2 and the US formed backbone of Europe’s protection by sharing major chunk of NATO expenditure. For the first time Europe is coming out of US shadow and taking responsibility of its own protection. This surely is going to increase the arms race and arms production around the world followed by world inflation and instability. The imbalance is most likely to cascade into Asia too! The equations are changing fast with the changed relations of US with Russia and Europe.
Europe was on backfoot since Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. The economic status and growth patterns are not showing substantial progress and the increasing inclination towards rightist thinking along with growing energy demand, inadequate supplies, rifts and other issues have added to growing list of challenges. As the news of Russian strike at President Zelenskyy’s place in Ukraine reached, the fear of an emboldened Russia becoming more aggressive is increased. European Council President Antonio Costa said “We are moving decisively towards a strong and more sovereign Europe of defence. After removal of US support to Ukraine on defense, all European leaders supported Ukraine. The European Union EU till now, provided 135.4 billion euros to Ukraine, including 49.2 billion in military support. It is noteworthy that of these 135.4 billion euros, as far as 65% is in the form of grants or in-kind support and 35% in loans. Learning from the recent US Russia meeting about war in Ukraine in Saudi capital where Ukraine was excluded ,The EU leaders agreed that,
No negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine.
No negotiations that affect European security without Europe’s involvement
Any truce of ceasefire can only take place as part of a process leading to a comprehensive peace agreement.
Any peace agreement needs to be accompanied by robust and credible security guarantees for Ukraine that contribute to deterring future Russian aggression.
Slovakia and Ukraine to intensify efforts towards finding workable solutions to the gas transit issue, while taking into consideration the concerns raised by Slovakia ( The Russian gas pipeline goes to Slovakia through Ukraine and Ukraine has threatened to disrupt the flow)
EU leaders welcomed the European Commission’s intention to facilitate increased defence spending at national level , to provide 150 billion in defence loans and European Investment Bank’s plans to step up its support for Europe’s security and defence industry.
EU leaders identified a set of priority areas for action at both EU as well NATO’s level in air and missile defence, artillery systems, including deep precision strike capabilities (Russian soil coming under target), missiles and ammunition, drones and anti-drone systems.
space and critical infrastructure protection, cyber security, artificial intelligence, electronic warfare, strengthening European defence industry. The leaders stressed that NATO remains the foundation for the collective defence of its members.
