Europe plans rearmament without U.S.

Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, participates in the plenary session of the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France on 11 March, 2025 | Photo: Christophe Licoppe/EC – Audiovisual Service/European Union

The joint statement issued after the talks between the U.S. and Ukraine in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia said ‘The Ukrainian delegation reiterated that European partners shall be involved in the peace process.’

The immediate objective of a European consensus on Ukrainian security is a force in Ukraine that can police a ceasefire with Russia that is contingent on U.S. support and a Russian agreement to a ceasefire, which the U.S. is now expected to discuss with Russia.

But Europe appears to have accepted the prospect of acting independently of the United States, with a new rearmament program proposed by the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, last week.

Von der Leyen announced the creation of a new program for the defence of Europe. “ReArm Europe could mobilise close to EUR 800 billion for a safe and resilient Europe,” she said.

“This set of proposals focuses on how to use all of the financial levers at our disposal – in order to help Member States to quickly and significantly increase expenditures in defence capabilities. Urgently now but also over a longer time over this decade,” said von der Leyen, last week.

The proposals would allow member states to increase spending on defence without breaking European Union rules on deficit limits and would set aside €150 billion as loans to member states for defence spending, with von der Leyen adding, “It will provide EUR 150 billion of loans to Member States for defence investment. This is basically about spending better – and spending together. We are talking about pan-European capability domains.”

Von der Leyen told the European Parliament on Tuesday that money proposed for expenditure under a new rearmament program for Europe should be spent on orders from European companies.

“The European Council has agreed on our proposal for a new financial instrument. We call it SAFE. Security Action for Europe. We offer Member States up to EUR 150 billion in loans – to invest following a few basic principles. They could focus on a few selected strategic capability domains, from air defence to drones, from strategic enablers to cyber, to mention a few – so that we maximise the impact of our investments. These loans should finance purchases from European producers, to help boost our own defence industry,” she said.

Separately, defence ministers from France, Germany, Italy, Poland and the UK are meeting in Paris on Wednesday, where they will also focus on European rearmament.

This follows a meeting of military officials from 32 countries in Paris on Tuesday on the creation of an international security force for Ukraine.

This is the second time since the end of last month that the U.S. was missing from an international meeting on Ukrainian security.

The U.S. government has not participated in talks organised by the British and French on Ukrainian security since the drama in the White House at the end of last month.

These meetings followed the London summit on the 2nd of March where French and British proposals were discussed for providing security to Ukraine after a potential ceasefire with Russia. The stars and stripes first went missing from the line-up of flags in London.

Tuesday’s meeting in Paris was reported to have included officials from Japan, South Korea, Australia and New Zealand and was intended to discuss the possibilities for the practical implementation of the French and British proposals, with participants asked if and how they could potentially contribute to the plan, subject to approvals by their respective national leaderships.

The absence of the Trump administration from these discussions is the latest confirmation of Europe’s acceptance of an incontrovertible break with its most powerful ally and an apparent readiness to proceed with the evolution of the European security architecture to one that is no longer dominated by the United States.