EU leaders agree on defence surge, support Zelenskyy after US aid freeze

Brussels: European leaders on Thursday backed plans to spend more on defence and pledged to continue to stand by Ukraine in a world upended by Donald Trump's reversal of US policies.

"Europe must take up this challenge, this arms race. And it must win it," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said at a special defence summit in Brussels.

"Europe as a whole is truly capable of winning any military, financial, economic confrontation with Russia - we are simply stronger," Tusk said.

The EU leaders hailed the European Commission's proposals this week to give them fiscal flexibility on defence spending, and to jointly borrow up to 150 billion euros ($160 billion) to lend to EU governments to spend on their militaries.

In a joint statement agreed by all 27 member states, the leaders called on their governments to examine these proposals in detail urgently.

The Brussels summit takes 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.

"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 in an address to the French nation on the eve of the summit.

He stressed that Russia had become a threat for all of Europe, remarks that drew strong criticism from Moscow.

Supporting Ukraine

The EU leaders also voiced support for Ukraine, but that statement was agreed without

Hungary's nationalist leader Viktor Orban, a Trump ally.

In their statement, the 26 other EU leaders stressed that there can be no negotiations on Ukraine without Ukraine, and vowed to continue to give it aid, according to a recent draft.

"We are here to defend Ukraine," the chairman of the meeting Antonio Costa said as he and European Commission Chief Ursula von der Leyen, both smiling broadly, warmly welcomed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to the summit, in sharp contrast with the clash between Trump and Zelenskiy in the Oval Office last week.

But decades of reliance on U.S. protection, divergences on funding and on how France's nuclear deterrence could be used for Europe showed how difficult it would be for the EU to fill the void left by Washington after it froze military aid to Ukraine.

Washington provided more than 40% of military aid to Ukraine last year, according to NATO, some of which Europe could not easily replace. Some leaders still held out hope, in public at least, that Washington could be coaxed back into the fold.

"We must ensure, with cool and wise heads, that U.S. support is also guaranteed in the coming months and years, because Ukraine is also dependent on their support for its defence," Germany's outgoing Chancellor Olaf Scholz said.

The summit statement did not directly address Zelenskiy's call for EU leaders to support the idea of a truce between Russian and Ukrainian forces in the air and at sea. Zelenskiy told the EU leaders such a truce would be a chance to test Moscow's will to end its three-year invasion.

Nuclear Deterrence?

In a sign of the gravity of the moment, Macron said France was open to discussing extending the protection offered by its nuclear arsenal to its European partners.

This was met with cautiously positive reactions. Some, like Lithuania's President Gitanas Nauseda, said such a "nuclear umbrella would serve as really very serious deterrence toward Russia." Poland said the idea was worth discussing while some, like the Czechs, stressed the need to keep the U.S. involved.

Trump has said Europe must take more responsibility for its security and that the U.S. would not protect a NATO ally that did not spend enough on defence.

His decision to shift from staunch U.S. support for Ukraine to a more conciliatory stance towards Moscow has deeply alarmed Europeans who see Russia as the biggest threat.

Underlining the level of concern, the parties aiming to form Germany's next government on Tuesday agreed to lift constitutional limits on borrowing to fund defence spending.

Elsewhere in Europe, Norway will more than double its financial pledge to Ukraine this year while also hiking its own defence spending, the prime minister said.

Norway, home to the world's largest sovereign wealth fund with assets of $1.8 trillion, has seen soaring income from gas sales to Europe as a result of Russia's 2022 Ukraine invasion, and faces pressure at home and abroad to increase its aid.

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