After attending an emergency security conference with other European leaders in Paris on Monday, February 17, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk stated that Europe understands its relationship with the United States has entered a “new phase.”
The summit was hurriedly scheduled for Monday in order to discuss Washington’s unexpected change in attitude about the situation in Ukraine. In a discussion with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin last week to discuss initiating talks to end the nearly three-year conflict, US President Donald Trump ignored Kyiv and its European supporters.
As everyone in this room knows, a new era has begun in our partnership with the United States, the NATO alliance, and transatlantic relations. Tusk told reporters, “We all see that.” “I don’t think anyone should be surprised – and today’s meeting also confirmed this – that our European partners are aware that the time has come for much greater European defense capacity,” he said.
There was unanimous agreement that a substantial increase in defense spending was imperative in this case as well. “It is pointless to become agitated when our ally, the United States, says to spend more, get stronger, and become more resilient,” stated Tusk.
Read more: The US Requests Europeans to Provide Guarantees for Ukraine.
There is unquestionably truth to these statements. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz stated that any discussion on the issue of sending troops to Ukraine was “completely premature” and “highly inappropriate” at a time when the violence was still raging. Following his departure from the meeting, Scholz told reporters that he was “a little irritated by these debates, I want to say that quite frankly,”
He went on to say, “The dialogue is being held over Ukraine’s heads, over the results of peace negotiations that have not happened, to which Ukraine has not responded positively, and where it has not sat at the table.” “To be quite honest, this is completely unacceptable. We have no idea how things will turn out.
Europe is weak today’
In the context of Sunday’s general election, Scholz emphasized that “we must continue to support Ukraine and it must and can rely on us.” He stated that Ukraine “must be able to continue on its path to the European Union, must be able to defend democracy and its sovereignty, and it must be able to maintain its own strong army.”
Scholz stated that both sides must always work together on collective security after the Trump administration urged its NATO members in Europe to spend more for shared defense. “There must be no division of security and responsibility between Europe and the United States,” Scholz stated. “The foundation of NATO is our constant cooperation and risk sharing, which ensures our security. It is not necessary to debate this.
In the meantime, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky described Europe’s present military capabilities as “weak” during a Monday interview. Zelensky stated that “in terms of troop strength, the number of combat troops, the fleet, the air force, the drones… I honestly think that Europe is weak today” despite the fact that “readiness has increased” in recent years, according to an interview posted on Saturday by the ARD broadcaster.
Following the Paris summit, EU leader Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X, “Today in Paris, we reaffirmed that Ukraine deserves peace through strength.” “Europe provides Ukraine with its fair share of military aid. At the same time, Europe needs to strengthen its defenses.
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