Munich, Feb 14 (.) European and NATO members must move from “overdependence” on the US and toward more autonomy and “hard power,” UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said, adding that London must fight back if it is able.
“That is the currency of the age, we must be able to deter aggression, and yes, if necessary, we must be ready to fight, to do whatever it takes to protect our people, our values and our way of life,” Starmer said at the Munich Security Conference.
Starmer’s remarks came amid the recent shift in Washington’s policy towards NATO, where it has pressed the rest of the bloc’s members to increase their defence spending, arguing that the US has been the primary spender with minimal payments from Europe, which has been taxing on the country’s own economy.
Starmer stressed that “while the US remained an indispensable ally,” the transatlantic shift in Washington’s national security strategy means that Europe must take the onus for its own defence, rather than being dependent on foreign aid, adding “That is the new normal.”
In a preview of the speech published by the prime minister’s office on Friday, Starmer said “Europe must shift from overdependence to interdependence – forging a new path towards sovereign deterrence and hard power.”
Calling Europe a “sleeping giant” in terms of military potential, he urged for the creation of a “more European NATO”. Highlighting the continent’s economic power, he remarked, “Our economies dwarf Russia’s more than 10 times over. We have huge defence capabilities, yet too often this adds up to less than the sum of its parts.”
French President Emmanuel Macron echoing the sentiment, stressed that “Europe has to become a geopolitical power” and that it has “to accelerate and deliver all the components of a geopolitical power: Defence, technologies, and de-risking from all the big powers.”
Macron has championed the idea of European defence autonomy since 2018, and has even proposed the concept of a ‘European army’, though the idea has received little support from fellow nations amid fears of what such a dramatic move could bring, despite widespread fears of World War III in the not-too-distant future.
Starmer’s remarks come as UK officials warned that the British army would struggle in a potential war against a near-peer adversary due to years of underfunding, with the military expected to run out of ammunition within days in case of a large-scale conflict, in a reference to possible future conflict with Russia.
The calls for autonomy come amid widening rifts between the US and European NATO members, caused due to President Donald Trump’s aggressive push to acquire Greenland from Denmark, despite Copenhagen’s refusal to yield its territory to Washington, whether by carrot or stick. Trump has argued that the island is needed for national security reasons, while EU nations have scrambled to defend the island’s sovereignty.
Trump has for years pushed the rest of NATO to ramp up military spending instead of relying solely on US security guarantees. As a result, NATO members have committed to increasing military expenditure to 5% of GDP. Russia has condemned what it called the bloc’s “reckless militarisation”, saying it serves only to undermine European security, and create further problems, repeatedly brushing aside all European “fearmongering” of any kind of Russian invasion, insisting that Moscow has no such desire.
. . .
