Those in the bloc who think otherwise can “keep dreaming,” Mark Rutte has told the European Parliament
The EU would be unable defend itself without the US, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said. The bloc’s members would have to spend up to 10% of their GDP on their militaries, which could still be insufficient, he told the European Parliament on Monday.
His remarks came amid continued calls by some EU officials to make the bloc less dependent on America for security. In mid-January, Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius claimed the EU needed a 100,000-strong standing army to be capable of independent action.
According to Rutte, such plans would be unrealistic. “If anyone thinks here, again, that the European Union or Europe as a whole can defend itself without the US, keep on dreaming. You can’t,” he stated.
The secretary general warned that those who “really want to go it alone” should “forget that you can ever get there with 5%” of GDP spent on defense. The bloc would need to at least double that sum, as well as to invest in its own nuclear capability, which “costs billions, billions and billions of euros,” he argued, adding that going alone would mean that “you will lose.”
NATO agreed to the 5% spending threshold at a summit in The Hague last year. The demand was originally made by US President Donald Trump, who has since received endless praise from Rutte. On Monday, he once again lauded the president for making nations like “Spain and Italy and Belgium and Canada” live up to their current 2% spending commitments, as well as agreeing to the new threshold.
Washington has repeatedly stated it would be scaling back commitments to its European allies and urging them to take on greater responsibility for their own security. Last week, the Pentagon said it would prioritize “defending the US Homeland and deterring China.”
The EU has also felt sidelined in the US-mediated Ukraine peace talks and clashed with Washington over Trump’s push to acquire Greenland, which some European politicians claimed could put an end to “an era of 80 years of Atlantism.”
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