Author: John T Psaropoulos
Published on: 28/04/2025 | 00:00:00
AI Summary:
Europe led a record international rise in defence spending last year. European expenses rose by 17 percent to $693m, spearheading a global rise of 9.4 percent to $2.7 trillion. Russia saw the biggest annual rise of any single country at 38 percent, as it suffered devastating material losses in its war in Ukraine. The size of the European Union economy meant that it needed to spend only 0.12 percent more of its gross domestic product (GDP) to replace US military support for Ukraine, the think tank Bruegel estimated last February. “We will see further increases in the years ahead. Europe recognises the need to stand on its own and not rely as heavily on the United States,” he said. Every EU member state except Malta raised its defence budget. The relaxed EU deficit rules, known as Rearm Europe, and a 150-billion-euro ($170bn) fund to boost EU defence products. German parliament decision last month to devote up to 1 trillion euros ($1.14 trillion) to infrastructure and defence all advocated in favour of what Krummrich predicted. The US and Europe should not be decoupling, but working together to provide specific needs in both Europe and the Asia Pacific. The scarce assets America needs are the very high-end [air]lift, missiles. This internationalist approach is currently out of favour on the continent.
Original: 1044 words
Summary: 218 words
Percent reduction: 79.12%
I'm a bot and I'm open source