https://arab.news/bg4tc
The confusion sewn by the Alaska summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the follow-up summit between Trump and European leaders, including Ukraine, has more than justified the decision taken by NATO’s non-US members to increase defense spending and intensify security cooperation. This commitment made it possible for European and Ukrainian leaders to propose that they buy tens of billions of dollars of US military equipment as part of a sustainable plan for peace in Europe and Ukraine.
This is the right approach, perhaps the only one, not only for promoting European and Ukrainian defense, but also for rebuilding transatlantic cooperation in a variety of sectors, from artificial intelligence to tariffs. Defense may be the simplest sector for the US and Europe to align, for multiple reasons.
For starters, all the joint (transatlantic) work done since NATO’s Wales Summit in 2014 has already established a solid foundation. Second, there is broad agreement on the need for Europe to do more. Europe and non-US NATO members now plan to spend 5 percent of gross domestic product on defense by 2032 and European officials have said that Europe will spend 3 percent, on average, by 2028. Following the launch of a €150 billion ($174 billion) EU fund that has already solicited bids, EU defense investment is scheduled to be 10 times what it was.
