European leaders on Thursday approved plans to spend more on defence and continue to stand by Ukraine in a world upended by Donald Trump's reversal of U.S. policies.
The European Union's defense summit in Brussels took place amid fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, will attack another EU country next, and that Europe can no longer rely on the United States to intervene.
"Today, we demonstrated that the European Union is rising to the challenge, building a Europe of defense and standing shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine," meeting chairman Antonio Costa told reporters.
This week, EU leaders welcomed the European Commission's plans to grant them fiscal leeway over defense expenditures and to pool up to 150 billion euros ($160 billion) to lend to EU nations for military expenditures.
The leaders urged their ministers to immediately review these proposals in detail in a joint statement that was approved by all 27 member states.
"Europe must take up this challenge, this armaments race. At a special defense forum in Brussels, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk declared, "And it must win it."
"Europe as a whole is truly capable of winning any military, financial, economic confrontation with Russia - we are simply stronger," Tusk stated.
All of this is only the beginning, according to French President Emmanuel Macron, who warned French voters on Wednesday that Russia posed a threat to France and Europe.
Following the EU summit, he declared, "We need to build autonomous defense capacities in Europe, regardless of what happens in Ukraine."
SUPPORTING UKRAINE
The EU leaders also expressed support for Ukraine, but they did so without the participation of Viktor Orban, the populist leader of Hungary and a Trump friend who is also fostering relations with Moscow.
According to a recent draft, the 26 other EU leaders emphasized in their statement that talks on Ukraine cannot take place without Ukraine and promised to keep providing it with aid.
In stark contrast to the confrontation between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy in the Oval Office last week, Costa and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen both grinned heartily as they welcomed Zelenskiy to the summit. "We are here to defend Ukraine," Costa remarked.
However, decades of dependence on U.S. security, disagreements over financing, and the potential for France's nuclear deterrence to benefit Europe demonstrated how challenging it would be for the EU to fill the gap left by Washington's decision to stop providing military assistance to Ukraine.
According to NATO, Washington supplied more than 40% of Ukraine's military assistance last year, some of which Europe found difficult to replace. At least in public, some leaders continued to hope that Washington could be persuaded to rejoin.
Olaf Scholz, Germany's outgoing chancellor, stated, "We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that U.S. support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years, because Ukraine is also dependent on their support for its defense."
According to Macron, leaders agreed with Zelenskiy's request that they supported a truce between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the air and at sea, which Zelenskiy told EU leaders would be an opportunity to gauge Moscow's commitment to ending its three-year assault.
NUCLEAR DETERRENCE?
In a sign of the gravity of the moment, Macron has suggested that France was open to discussion extending the protection afforded by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners.
This was welcomed with cautiously optimistic replies. Some, such as Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, believe that a "nuclear umbrella" would serve as a "really very serious deterrence toward Russia." Poland thought the concept was worth exploring, while others, such as the Czechs, emphasized the necessity to keep the United States involved.
Trump has stated that Europe must take greater responsibility for its security. On Thursday, he expressed skepticism about his willingness to defend Washington's NATO allies, stating that he would not do so if they did not pay enough for their own defense.
His decision to shift from staunch US support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance toward Moscow has deeply concerned Europeans, who see Russia as the most serious threat.
To demonstrate how concerned they are, the parties seeking to form Germany's next government decided on Tuesday to lift
Constitutional restrictions on borrowing to pay for defense.
According to the prime minister, Norway will increase its defense spending and more than double its financial commitment to Ukraine this year.
$1 is equivalent to 0.9271 euros.
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