Europe should welcome, not rebuke, US President Donald Trump’s call for other NATO members to increase their military spending, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Wednesday, the 22nd of January, underlining the importance of security across the continent, report Reuters and Politico.
Trump has said that members of the military alliance should spend 5% of their GDP on defence, far more than the current 2%, a figure that is currently not reached by any NATO country, including the US. He repeated this on taking office on Monday, even though NATO officials have not endorsed the 5% target.
“We should not be irritated. We should not be shocked,” Tusk told lawmakers in the European Parliament. “Some people think this is an extravagant, or brutal, or malicious warning. If Europe wants to survive, it must be armed.”
Tusk, whose country now holds the rotating EU presidency for six months, said the “comfort time” was over as the new US president has said Europe must take a greater share of responsibility for its own security.
“Only an ally can want another ally to become stronger. This is not what Europe’s adversary would say,” Tusk said.
Poland spends the most on defence out of NATO members, at 4.1% of GDP in 2024, while eight of the 32 members of the military and political alliance spend less than 2% of GDP.
“I want to say that this is a time when Europe cannot afford to skimp on security,” Tusk told the EU assembly.
Tusk reiterated the view of the EU’s foreign policy chief, former Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, that Russia poses an existential threat to EU security and that the only way to counter it is to increase defence spending.
Some EU countries, such as Germany, are opposed to joint defence borrowing. Tusk stressed that financing methods are less important than the urgent need for Europe to take control of its own security, evoking the words of John F. Kennedy.
“Do not ask America what it can do for our security. Ask yourselves what we can do for our security,” Tusk stressed to lawmakers, echoing Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s remarks at the World Economic Forum a day earlier when he berated Europe for its inadequate defence spending at a time when war continues indefinitely on its doorstep.
Also read: At least 200 000 peacekeepers needed for security guarantees, says Zelenskyy
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Publish date : 2025-01-22 06:07:00
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