European leaders will on Thursday aim to endorse bold measures to ramp up defence spending and pledge support for Ukraine after US President Donald Trump’s suspension of military aid to Kyiv fuelled concerns the continent can no longer be sure of US protection.
It was gathered that leaders of the 27-bloc will be joined by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a summit in Brussels, although their show of solidarity may be marred by Hungary refusing to endorse a statement backing Kyiv.
The meeting is said to be taking place against a backdrop of dramatic defence policy decisions driven by fears that Russia, emboldened by its war in Ukraine, may attack an EU country next and that Europe cannot rely on the US to come to its aid.
US President Donald Trump has insisted that he is committed to the NATO security alliance that links North America and Europe.
However, he has also said Europe must take more responsibility for its security and previously suggested that the US would not protect a NATO ally that did not spend enough on defence.
His decision to shift from staunch US support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow has deeply alarmed Europeans who see Russia as the biggest threat to their security.
“I want to believe that the United States will stand by us. But we have to be ready if that is not the case,” French President Emmanuel Macron said of the war in Ukraine in an address to the French nation on the eve of the summit.
Macron, in a sign of the gravity of the moment, said France was open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners.
The parties, on Tuesday, aiming to form Germany’s next government, agreed to loosen borrowing limits to allow billions of euros of extra defence spending.
