Latest editorial
From left: Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State in the Britain's Ministry of Defence, France's Minister of the Armed Forces Sebastien Lecornu, Poland's Minister of National Defence Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz, Italy's Minister of Defence Guido Crosetto, and Germany's Federal Minister of Defence Boris Pistorius attend a news conference after a meeting of defense ministers of five NATO countries to discuss coordinating their defense plans and support for Ukraine, in the village of Helenow, near Warsaw, Poland, January 13, 2025
THE defence ministers of Europe’s five top military spenders said on Monday that meeting United States President-elect Donald Trump’s demand for them to raise spending to 5 per cent of their overall economic output was complicated.
The ministers with responsibility for the military in Germany, France, Britain, Italy and Poland came together near Warsaw for a meeting in a new format that they established after Mr Trump was re-elected last year.
The five are seeking ways to maintain their support for Ukraine as US policy is expected to shift when Mr Trump takes power.
In the first half of a two-part article, PETER MERTENS looks at how Nato’s €800 billion ‘Readiness 2030’ plan serves Washington’s pivot to the Pacific, forcing Europeans to dismantle social security and slash pensions to fund it