Europe cannot rely on the United States for its security

Paris/Washington: ‘We must rethink our strategic autonomy. Europe needs to gain more autonomy on technology and defence capabilities, including from the US. An alliance isn’t something I should depend on,’ President of France, Emmanuel Macron, warned. Besides, Jiri Sedivy, the head of the European Defence Agency, also claimed last week that the European Union (EU) could not depend on the United States.

The US and European member countries of NATO had begun providing defence assistance to Ukraine after Russia attacked Ukraine. So far, European countries have provided weapons and defence systems worth more than five billion dollars and have indicated that they would also continue this support in the coming year. It has come to the fore that France, Germany and Poland have provided the most assistance in arms assistance provided by the European Union. However, after supplying a large number of weapons to Ukraine, there has been a big decrease in the stockpiles of European countries, and countries like Germany have only enough stocks left to fight for a few days.

In this background, top countries like Germany and France have been trying to promote independent defence capabilities and industry in Europe. Macron has taken the initiative for this. In the past few years, he has consistently raised the issue of an independent army in Europe. However, he was criticised as giving an alternative to NATO. Therefore, although this issue was left behind, the protectability issue and related industries came to light against growing differences with the US.

After the massive arms supply to Ukraine, European countries have to depend on the US to maintain defence readiness. Moreover, more than 10 European countries have signed multi-billion dollar defence deals with the US in the past few months. This includes purchases ranging from fighter jets to missiles.

During a meeting of the European Union last month, a senior EU official expressed his displeasure in bitter terms over whether the US has remained Europe’s partner. After that, French President Emmanuel Macron, who visited the US, also reprimanded the Biden administration for the policies of the US.

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