At an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday, assembled in response to the US’ pulling back from commitments to Ukraine and questioning Europe’s resolve in its own security, European Union leaders approved a plan to spend the equivalent of about $860 billion on defense, a watershed moment in the 27-country bloc’s history, as defense has never been as much of a top priority.
European Council President António Costa said the bloc “decided to invest in priority areas” such as air defense, missiles, drone and anti-drone systems, artificial intelligence and more. The agreement sets aside about $160 billion in loans for EU member countries who may not be an immediate position to increase defense spending.
JOIN US ON TELEGRAM
Follow our coverage of the war on the @Kyivpost_official.
A joint statement said the initiative and European defense spending in general contributes to the “security of Europe as a whole, in particular as regards the EU’s eastern border, considering the threats posed by Russia and Belarus.”
“A stronger European defense also provides deterrence for Ukraine… Ukraine’s security is at the core of Europe’s security,” said EC President Antonio Costa.
US President Donald Trump has long complained that European members of NATO have long spent much less on defense than has the United States. He went so far as to suggest on Thursday, officials said, that the US might not defend a fellow NATO member that is attacked if the country doesn’t meet the alliance’s minimum defense spending threshold.
Senior Ukraine-US Officials Rumored to Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia Tuesday
Other Topics of Interest
Senior Ukraine-US Officials Rumored to Hold Talks in Saudi Arabia Tuesday
It is unclear if Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or his US counterpart, Donald Trump, will be attending the talks
The minimum is now set at two percent of GDP, but Trump has pushed to increase that percentage to 5 percent of GDP, more than even the US spends. Five NATO countries — Estonia, Greece, Latvia, Poland and the U.S. — spent more than three percent on defense, with Poland registering the highest at four percent of GDP.
“We are moving decisively towards a strong and more sovereign Europe of defense,” Costa said on Thursday. “We are putting our money where our mouth is.”
The new EU defense plan eases fiscal rules to allow states to spend much more.
French President Emmanuel Macron independently has called for a defense spending increase and suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrent to European partners.
In 2019, France spent less than 1.9 percent of GDP on defense. By 2023 that had risen to just above the NATO threshold, to 2.1 percent.