NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg warned Europe today not to go it alone after Donald Trump’s comments fueled a new debate about whether the continent can continue to rely on the protection of the United States.
“The European Union cannot defend Europe. Eighty percent of NATO’s military expenditures come from non-EU NATO allies,” said Stoltenberg, Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, in an interview with Reuters.
Stoltenberg stated that it is clear that the security of Europe does not depend exclusively on Europe itself, but also on other NATO members such as the United States, Canada, Turkey, Norway and Iceland.
“If you just look at the map, it is obvious that all those countries, which are not members of the EU, are vital for the protection of Europe,” he said.
He added that “any attempt to separate Europe from America will also divide Europe.” Many European countries, especially in the East, see the United States as their primary security guarantor and would oppose any move to change that.
Trump, the former US president and front-runner for the Republican nomination in this year’s presidential election, drew sharp criticism from Western leaders after he said he told NATO members that the US would not defend those who did not invest enough in the military and would even encourage Russia. to attack them.
A number of European politicians argue that Trump’s comments were a wake-up call and should act as an incentive for Europe to do more to defend itself.
Stoltenberg stated that the European members of NATO must do more to build military capacities and that they are doing so. However, he said that this should happen in the transatlantic framework.
During the day, he said European allies would invest $380 billion in the military this year, boosting their spending to an estimated two percent of total GDP in 2024, compared to 1.85 percent in 2023, Reuters reported.
