Top European Union (E.U.) diplomat Kaja Kallas said Wednesday the bloc must heed U.S. President Donald Trump’s demand for more defence spending as she issued a stark warning over the expansionist threat posed by Russia.
Her call came less than 24-hours after French President Emmanuel Macron told Europe to “wake up” and spend more on defence, as Breitbart News reported.
AFP reports Kallas’s rallying cry was the latest in a slew of increasingly alarming warnings on defence from European officials, who have been calling for a “wake-up call” on defence since Moscow kicked the lid off hell in 2022 and rolled tanks into Ukraine.
Trump has ramped up the pressure by warning Washington’s European allies he could withhold U.S. protection, calling for NATO to more than double its defence spending target, thus underlining his long-standing claims they are underpaying for U.S. protection.
He specified NATO members must increase defence spending from the current target of two percent to five percent.
“President Trump is right to say that we don’t spend enough. It’s time to invest,” Kallas said in a keynote speech at a conference in Brussels. “The United States, they are our strongest ally, and must remain so.”
“The E.U.’s message to the U.S. is clear, we must do more for our own defence and shoulder a fair share of responsibility for Europe’s security,” she said.
“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?”
E.U. leaders will meet with British Prime Minister Kier Starmer and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte on 3 February for informal talks on strengthening Europe’s defences.
Rutte said he expected Trump’s return to “turbo-charge defence spending and production.”
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