Filling Defense Gaps, Expanding Weapon Purchases: Europe Busy Soothing the U.S. Before NATO Summit

【Global Times Report by Reporter Zhou Yang】According to reports from Reuters and the British Daily Telegraph, with only a few days left until the NATO summit to be held in Ankara, Turkey, from July 7 to 8, Europe is nervously responding to NATO's adjustments. On one hand, against the backdrop of the United States continuously demanding that Europe take on more defense responsibilities, NATO's European member countries are accelerating military spending and expanding armaments, attempting to fill the capability gap formed by long-term reliance on the United States; on the other hand, European figures, including German Chancellor Merz and NATO Secretary General Stoltenberg, have recently been calling to reassure the United States, aiming to persuade President Trump to continue the military alliance commitment to NATO.

"NATO is facing unprecedented pressure"

This year, the U.S. government's attitude towards NATO and even Europe as a whole has significantly changed. Trump has warned European countries that if they do not increase defense spending, they may lose security guarantees from the United States. He has also repeatedly threatened to completely withdraw the U.S. from NATO. This dissatisfaction has intensified after the U.S.-Iran conflict, as some European countries refused to allow the U.S. to use their bases to strike Iran, which Trump explicitly expressed disappointment over.

In May of this year, the United States informed its NATO allies that it had decided to reduce the military support previously promised to NATO in critical situations. The Supreme Allied Commander Europe, U.S. Air Force General Tod Wolters, stated that this move aims to gradually end NATO's "unhealthy dependence" on U.S. forces.

Against the backdrop of the U.S. reducing military support for NATO, Reuters reported on July 2, citing sources, that NATO will announce at next week's Ankara summit that its European member countries have filled almost all defense gaps left by the U.S., but currently, strategic bombers remain the most difficult key shortfall to replace. Reuters stated: "NATO is facing unprecedented pressure, and some European countries are concerned that Washington may fulfill Trump's repeated threats to withdraw from NATO."

Attracting the U.S. with military-industrial jobs?

In recent days, NATO's European member countries have heightened their sense of urgency. Some European figures have publicly called on the U.S., emphasizing that defense cooperation between Europe and the U.S. is beneficial for both sides. On July 1, Merz stated at a joint press conference with Stoltenberg: "The U.S. is an equal partner and one of NATO's 32 member countries. We are closely coordinating with European NATO members and Canada. We are very confident that at next week's summit, we will tell the U.S. that they need us, and we need them; we are prepared and capable of defending ourselves together."

Stoltenberg has attempted to alleviate Washington's dissatisfaction. He not only "guaranteed" at the press conference on the 1st that European countries have begun to fill the capability gaps caused by the U.S. withdrawal of military resources and reiterated that European countries stand with the U.S. in the U.S.-Iran conflict, but in a previous interview with the Financial Times, he also tried to use "arms spending" to demonstrate the value of European countries and NATO to the U.S.

He revealed that in the "European Rearmament Plan," multiple European countries and Canada will order arms from the U.S. totaling up to $300 billion "over the next few years," which can support 195,000 jobs in the U.S. military industry.

Expecting the U.S. to be predictable, Europe "is likely to be disappointed"

Analysts believe that a year ago, many European countries still hoped to ease relations with the U.S. government by increasing military spending and expanding purchases of U.S. weapons to maintain traditional transatlantic relations, but this expectation has clearly weakened. Sofia Besch, a senior researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's Europe Program, stated that Europeans have accepted that U.S. commitments are changing, and the only thing they dare to hope for is greater predictability, ensuring that there are no slip-ups in the transition of NATO from U.S. leadership to European leadership.

"However, they are likely to be disappointed." Sofia Besch further analyzed that a divided and highly personalized government is unlikely to provide predictability, and the best outcome Europe can expect at the summit is for Trump to believe that Europeans have been sufficiently deterred, to continue his recent friendly attitude towards Ukraine, and not to use the summit to further amplify dissatisfaction with Iran.

Meanwhile, reports indicate that some NATO member countries are considering slowing down the pace of holding summits to avoid friction with Trump. Sources told Reuters that the summit originally scheduled to be held in Albania in 2027 is now full of uncertainties, as the country's current level of defense spending may provoke dissatisfaction from the U.S.