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The changes in the relationship between Europe and the United States are “structural, not temporary”, High Representative Kaja Kallas has said, as she warned against the dangers of outsourcing security in a new age of “coercive power politics”.
Her remarks come on the heels of US President Donald Trump’s attempt to seize Greenland from Denmark through punitive tariffs, an unprecedented dispute that brought the nearly 80-year-old transatlantic alliance to the brink of collapse.
The tensions were defused by a framework deal on Arctic security, the details of which remain under discussion.
“Arguably, the biggest change in the fundamental reorientation is going on across the Atlantic: a rethinking that has shaken the transatlantic relationship to its foundation,” Kallas said on Wednesday morning at the European Defence Agency’s annual conference.
“Let me be clear: we want strong trans-Atlantic ties. The US will remain Europe’s partner and ally. But Europe need to adapt to the new realities. Europe is no longer Washington’s primary centre of gravity.”
“This shift has been ongoing for a while,” she added, referring to previous American administrations. “It is structural, not temporary. It means that Europe must step up. No great power in history has ever outsourced its survival and survived.”
In her speech, Kallas presented a grim overview of the current state of affairs.
She labelled Russia a “major security threat”, China a “long-term challenge”, and the Middle East a “completely unpredictable” region.
These developments, coupled with Trump’s no-holds-barred foreign policy, have put a “severe strain on the international norms, rules and institutions enforcing them that we have built over 80 years”, Kallas said.
“The risk of a full-blown return to coercive power politics, spheres of influence and a world where might makes right is very real,” she noted.
The High Representative then exhorted European nations to “acknowledge that this tectonic shift is here to stay and act with urgency”.
Since Trump’s reelection, the European Union has rolled out several multi-billion initiatives to rapidly boost defence spending, promote its domestic industry and reduce its deep-rooted reliance on US-made weapons.
The bloc has set 2030 as a collective deadline to achieve “full defence readiness” and deter a potential Russian attack on an EU member state.
The efforts were dismissed this week by NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, who told Europeans to “keep on dreaming” about becoming independent on security and defence. His comments prompted backlash in Brussels and Paris.
Kallas did not refer to Rutte’s controversial intervention in her speech. Instead, she called for greater coordination and complementarity between the EU and NATO, which have 23 members in common, to ensure fairer burden sharing between allies.
“As the US is setting its sights abroad and beyond Europe, NATO needs to become more European to maintain its strength,” she said. “And for this, Europe must act.”
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