BRUSSELS: The EU’s top diplomat and Poland’s prime minister said on Wednesday (Jan 22) that the bloc must heed US President Donald Trump’s demand to spend much more on defence – faced with the “existential threat” posed by Russia.
The rallying cries were the latest in a slew of increasingly alarming warnings from European officials, who have been calling for a “wake-up call” on defence since Moscow’s tanks rolled into Ukraine in 2022.
Trump has ramped up the pressure by warning Washington’s European allies that he could withhold US protection, calling for NATO to more than double its defence spending target.
“President Trump is right to say that we don’t spend enough. It’s time to invest,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said in a keynote speech at a conference in Brussels. “The United States, they are our strongest ally, and must remain so.”
“The EU’s message to the US is clear, we must do more for our own defence and shoulder a fair share of responsibility for Europe’s security,” she said.
EU countries have increased their military budgets since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But politicians acknowledge they will have to go further as they struggle to match Moscow’s vast military output.
“Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and for as long as we under-invest in our defence,” said Kallas, a former prime minister of Estonia.
“Many of our national intelligence agencies are giving us the information that Russia could test EU’s readiness to defend itself in three to five years. Who else are we listening to?”
Speaking separately at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk insisted that “if Europe is to survive, it needs to be armed”.
The leader of Poland, which spends proportionally more on defence than any NATO ally, urged fellow EU states to take seriously Trump’s call to up the spending target to five per cent of GDP from two per cent.
“This is a time when Europe cannot afford to save on security,” said Tusk, whose country took over the EU’s rotating presidency this month.
