Singapore (Brussels Morning Newspaper) – European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Saturday that Europe is stepping up defence spending after getting some tough love from the US administration. She’s also calling for closer ties to oppose Beijing’s growing economic influence.
President Trump has repeatedly urged NATO countries to boost their defense spending, seeking as much as 5 percent of GDP and warning that the US will no longer tolerate freeloaders.
How is the EU responding to US defence pressure?
At the Shangri-La defence forum in Singapore, she addressed remarks by US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who described President Donald Trump’s push for increased military spending as “tough love.”
“It’s still, I love it, so it’s better than nothing love,”
She responded when questioned later about Hegseth’s speech.
She emphasised that the EU’s relationship with the US was not strained, pointing out that she had spoken with Hegseth.
“You, I caught his speech. He was actually pretty upbeat about the EU, so there’s definitely some positive vibes there,”
Kallas said.
She said,
“there different nations in the EU, and some of us have known for a long time that we need to invest in defence”.
Is Europe prepared to match Trump’s defence demands?
“Europe has changed gear and reimagined its own paradigm as a peace project, supported by hard defence,”
She expressed.
“It’s a good thing we’re doing more, but what I want to stress is that the security of the EU and the Pacific is very much interlinked,”
She also said.
How are China and Russia linked in EU concerns?
She noted that Ukraine was a key concern, as North Korean soldiers were already present and China was supplying Russia with military equipment.
“There were some very strong messages in the US Secretary of Defence’s speech regarding Beijing,”
Kallas expressed.
“I think again, if you’re worried about Beijing, you should be worried about Moscow,”
She stated.
She said the European Union wanted to build “coalitions in our mutual interest” in the Indo-Pacific area, including in the domain of security and economy.
She disagreed with suggestions that the US should focus on the Indo-Pacific region and Europe should concentrate on its own patch.
“I personally, I think that if you consider China’s economic might, it’s the big nationsor superpowers who sometimes overestimate their own strength,”
She said.
Beijing’s economic dominance can only be tackled by working together with
“like-minded allies like the US, like Britain, Australia, New Zealand, Japan, and South Korea… and Singapore,”
Stated Kallas.
