The bloc should reduce its dependence on the US military, the French president has said
The EU needs to develop a “massive defense plan” and boost military investment due to rising tensions with Russia and US President Donald Trump’s stance on the Ukraine conflict, French President Emmanuel Macron has said.
Speaking at a Q&A session on X on Thursday, the French leader stressed that EU members must reduce their reliance on the US over the next five to ten years.
“We need innovative European spending to innovate together, maybe, in the first place to help Ukraine, but also for ourselves,” Macron said, arguing that significant investment in the military should come “in the coming weeks.”
The French leader claimed that the world has entered a “new era” in which states have to increase defense spending while diminishing the population’s purchasing power.
He also addressed the shift in Washington’s strategy on the Ukraine conflict, which this week saw US officials hold their first high-level talks on resolving the crisis with their Russian counterparts since February 2022.
“I’m going to tell him [US President Donald Trump]: ‘You can’t be weak with [Russian President Vladimir] Putin. That’s not who you are, it’s not your trademark, it’s not in your interest,” Macron said, noting that he is due to meet the US leader in Washington on Monday.
Macron has for years championed the creation of a “European army,” initially floating the idea in 2018 during Trump’s first term. His remarks at the time did not result in any real action, with NATO officials voicing concerns that any new army would compete with the bloc rather than complement it.
Trump has consistently demanded that Washington’s European allies boost their defense spending, complaining that the US is bearing the main burden.
Following the EU’s exclusion from the US-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia this week, Macron called an emergency summit in a bid to drum up the bloc’s unity and discuss ways to ensure its role in the settlement of the Ukraine conflict.
President Putin has dismissed claims that Russia plans to attack Western countries, describing the speculation as “nonsense.” He has also repeatedly said that one of the key causes of the Ukraine conflict was NATO’s expansion towards Russia’s borders.
