Europe steps up to fund its own defense, provide security for Ukraine after Trump threats

European defense leaders are meeting in Paris this week to discuss their plans to provide Ukraine with security guarantees as the continent steps up after decades of relying on the U.S.

French President Emmanuel Macron led with an address to the Tuesday gathering of defense chiefs from 30 European and NATO countries after the U.S.’ new “America first” policy direction jolted the Europeans into action. 

Macron said it was time to “move from concept to plan,” and told French newspaper Le Figaro that France would boost its defense spending from 2% to 3.5% of GDP, amounting to around €30 billion annually. 

Details of any peacekeeping force are still widely in flux, but some officials said to expect a targeted deterrence force aimed at protecting key infrastructure rather than a wide blockade of the front lines. 

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Europeans were dismayed last week when the U.S. announced it would pause all aid and intelligence sharing with Ukraine, but that pause was lifted Tuesday after Ukraine agreed to a 30-day ceasefire. All eyes are now on Russia to see if Russian President Vladimir Putin accepts the deal, which came after U.S.-brokered talks in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, on Tuesday. 

The U.S. has insisted that it is Europe’s responsibility to offer military resources to help Ukraine deter Russia from invading again once a ceasefire is reached. President Donald Trump has flirted with the idea of not protecting European nations under NATO’s Article 5 if they refuse to meet their defense spending obligations under the treaty.

The new call for Europe’s defense was a welcome development for NATO’s eastern flank, where tiny nations have for years beaten out their larger European counterparts in defense spending as a percentage of their GDP. 

“We should not be panicking about [Trump statements],” said Giedrimas Jeglinskas, chairman of the Lithuanian parliament’s national security committee.

“Europeans need to think about what sort of troops to put in Ukraine,” he told Fox News Digital. “Europeans need to hold most of [our security] now. We need to show good will. Next to good will, you need to show numbers. How many troops can we generate, what sort of troops can we generate, what support we’re going to need from the U.S.” 

“I’m not going to provide security guarantees beyond very much,” Trump had said at his first Cabinet meeting on Feb. 26. “We’re going to have Europe do that.”

The United States – NATO’s most militarily powerful member – wasn’t invited to the Paris talks because European nations wanted to show that they are able to shoulder a large part of the job of safeguarding Ukraine once a truce is in effect, a French military official told the Associated Press.

But Jeglinskas said Europe should acquiesce to U.S. demands to pour more into its own defenses as it needs the U.S. for air defenses like the Patriot missile. 

“People who are complaining about the U.S. – there’s an abundance of that in Europe – yeah, show me the alternative. There’s nothing.” 

Over the weekend, top Trump advisor Elon Musk posted on X that the U.S. “really should” leave NATO. “Doesn’t make sense for America to pay for the defense of Europe,” he wrote. 

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“It’s common sense, right,” Trump told reporters of the NATO alliance last week. “If they don’t pay, I’m not going to defend them. No, I’m not going to defend them.”

Jeglinskas said that in his meetings behind closed doors, U.S. officials have expressed America’s commitment to Article 5 is “as strong as ever.” 

“Sometimes Trump goes way over to get people to come to a position of reality,” said Jonathan Bass, foreign affairs expert and Argent LNG CEO. “The fact that he went so far to what they considered crazy, [the Europeans] actually took him seriously and did what they needed to do.”

Lithuania is currently spending 4% on defense and plans to bump that figure to 5-6% next year, which is why Defense Minister Dovile Šakalienė told reporters her nation plans to pay U.S. defense manufacturers “at least $8 billion” more in “the coming years” to boost defenses. 

Russian aggression that could extend beyond Ukraine, including potentially into Baltic States like Lithuania, “worries us,” she said.

“That’s why we are really pushing forward with our military capability plans, with our defense capacity-building, infrastructure and personnel and acquisitions, from weapons to ammo, building factories, defense industries.”

Europe has offered Ukraine around $139 billion in aid since the start of the war, while the U.S. has offered around $128 billion. 

But the European Union last week proposed an $841 billion plan to “rearm Europe,” which included a $158 billion emergency loan proposal to arm European capacities in vulnerable areas like air defense and ammunition. The plan also calls for relaxing strict debt ceilings agreed to by the bloc for defense spending. 

“This is a moment for Europe, and we are ready to step up,” said European Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen last week. 

Šakalienė said “strengthening the northeastern flank” of Europe was the “joint goal,” which could mean stationing hypersonic missiles aimed at Russia in Baltic states like Lithuania.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.