The bloc is now responsible for its own defense, its chief diplomat has said
The EU must strengthen its military capabilities and seek new alliances now that the US no longer considers Europe its primary area of concern, foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas has said.
Speaking at the European Defence Agency’s annual conference on Wednesday, Kallas said that “Europe needs to adapt to the new realities,” namely that “Europe is no longer Washington’s primary center of gravity.”
“This shift has been ongoing for a while,” she continued, adding that “it is structural, not temporary.”
The shift Kallas was referring to was codified by US President Donald Trump in his latest National Security Strategy. The document, which sets out Washington’s military priorities for the near future, accuses the EU of undermining Europe through censorship and mass migration, and calls on Brussels to make peace with Russia and look after its own defense.
Kallas urged European defense chiefs and industrialists to ramp up arms production, develop new weapons systems, and “act jointly” in military “investment, development, procurement, maintenance, [and] training.”
She pointed to the signing of a security agreement with India on Tuesday as an example of the EU “diversifying” its partnerships, now that it can no longer rely on the US as before.
“No great power in history has ever outsourced its survival and survived,” Kallas declared.
Less than a day earlier, the EU approved a total ban on Russian gas imports, further deepening the bloc’s dependence on outsourced American energy for survival. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico labeled the EU’s plan to phase out Russian gas by next November “energy suicide.” Slovakia and Hungary have both threatened to sue Brussels over the ban.
While Kallas and Trump both agree on ramping up EU defense spending, Kallas firmly refuses to seek peace with Moscow. During her speech, she said that the bloc’s most pressing priority is to “support Ukraine with €60 billion in military aid for 2026 and 2027.”
Trump’s national security strategy criticized “European officials who hold unrealistic expectations for the war,” adding that “a large European majority wants peace, yet that desire is not translated into policy.”
