Authored by Victoria Friedman via The Epoch Times(emphasis ours),
British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said on May 4 that there needs to be a stronger European element in NATO, as the United States reconsiders its relationship with the defense alliance and pivots toward other security priorities domestically and globally.
Starmer acknowledged during a panel discussion at the European Political Community summit in Yerevan, Armenia, that, in terms of defense and security, Europe has “got behind over many years, now.”
“We’re not where we need to be,” he said.
The British prime minister alluded to the impact of the Ukraine–Russia war and, more recently, the Iran conflict on global security and economic stability, saying that Europe, especially, had to come together around these issues.
“There needs to be a stronger European element in NATO. I have no doubt about that,”he said.
Starmer said that while there needed to be a stronger European element in defense and security, “we’ve been behind the curve for too long: over dependencies, over reliance, and assumptions about the world that we live in—they’ve gone.”
“We now need to lead out of this, and we need to do it at pace because these impacts are real,” Starmer said.
“The alliances that are under tension are real, and how we, as a group of leaders, respond now will likely define what goes on for many years—arguably for a generation.”
U.S. President Donald Trump has long maintained that Europe should rely less on the United States for its security and that European NATO allies should increase their defense spending. This approach was formally accepted by NATO when, in June 2025, alliesagreedto raise defense spending targets from 2 percent of gross domestic product to 5 percent by 2035.
Source: ZeroHedge News
