Russia poses an existential threat to the European Union's security and the only way to address this is to increase defense spending, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said on Wednesday, adding that the EU had long offered Russia alternatives. The EU foreign policy chief made her response during a speech at the annual conference of the European Defense Agency.
"Russia poses an existential threat to our security today, tomorrow and as long as we invest less in our defense. People say I'm an 'anti-Russia hawk.' I think I'm just a realist about Russia," Kaja Kallas, the EU's foreign policy chief, writes A2 CNN.
Kallas, one of the European Union's most vocal opponents of Russian President Vladimir Putin, also acknowledged that US President Donald Trump was right when he said EU members do not spend enough on defence. Trump said earlier this month that NATO members should spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence - a big increase from the current target of 2% and a level that no NATO country, including the United States, currently meets.
"Time is not on Russia's side. But it is not necessarily on our side. Because we are still not doing enough. There should be no doubt in our minds that we need to spend more to prevent war. But we also need to prepare for war," Kallas said.
In her first major speech since taking office in December, Kallas stressed the importance of consolidating the EU's defense industry. She proposed the creation of a Single Market for Defense to enable member states to adopt common military systems, increasing interoperability between their armed forces.
Kallas explained that the EU does not want a single European army, but 27 national forces capable of working seamlessly together to address threats, especially from Russia. Kallas concluded with a stark warning: "If Europeans do not take defense seriously, there will be no Europe as we know it to defend." (A2 Televizion)
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