Europe is arming. But it is not just because of the war in Ukraine and the fear that Russia’s aggressive posture generates, but rather because of what Donald Trump said privately in 2018 (according to a reconstruction by the New York Times), namely that the United States could have left NATO, writes the Washington Post. “A US withdrawal from NATO would be a great burden.” And that is Trump’s fear. “Every foreign ministry is thinking about it,” a senior European diplomat was quoted as saying by the American newspaper. For example, Poland, which is leading this arms race, will be able to field more tanks than Britain, France, Germany and Italy combined. And the size of its military doubles. More than 10,000 American soldiers are deployed in Poland and 80 percent of the weapons are transported from Poland to Ukraine.
In 2018, Poland spent around two percent of its gross domestic product on defense. Next year this percentage will almost double. And it will continue to grow. Almost no other NATO country spends as much as a percentage of GDP. Poland is approaching Israel’s level (4.5 percent of GDP) in purchasing new fighter jets and helicopters, grenade launchers, air defense systems and artillery and even tanks.
Even Germany, long reluctant to increase defense spending, has opted for a long-term military sector expansion that will cost tens of billions of dollars annually through the 2030s. France, which is proposing European Union “strategic autonomy” to the United States, has increased military spending to levels not seen in half a century: Macron has allocated $450 billion to be spent on defense by 2030.