Former NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen said Europe needs to purchase locally made weapons and free itself from the current U.S.-backed security framework.
Mr. Rasmussen, who led the transatlantic alliance from 2009 to 2014, said Thursday in an interview with the “Europe Today” news show that the Trump administration’s “hostility” toward NATO allies is “painful to see.”
“I consider this the worst challenge for NATO during the history of a very successful alliance. We in Europe should conclude [that] we have to be able to stand on our own feet,” Mr. Rasmussen said. “We should strengthen our defense and build on a ‘coalition of the willing’ that could build a strong European [defense] pillar.”
Operation Epic Fury, the joint Israeli-U.S. military campaign against Iran, has weakened Europe’s ability to restock its defense supplies because of the depletion of U.S. ordnance that NATO allies would normally purchase. Europe will have a harder time providing weapons and interceptors for Ukraine in its fight against Russian invaders, Mr. Rasmussen said.
“We should purchase weapons and ammunition where it is, right now, because time is of the essence,” he said. “But we should also reduce our dependency on foreign actors like the United States, but also other countries.”
The Trump administration is pushing for Europe to take primary responsibility for its conventional defense and reduce reliance on U.S. support. Washington wants NATO allies to increase defense spending to 5% of GDP by 2035.
Mr. Rasmussen was Denmark’s prime minister from 2001 to 2009, during the height of the U.S. war in Afghanistan. More than 40 Danish soldiers died between 2002 and the end of major combat operations in 2014. With a population of about 6 million, Denmark suffered the highest per capita death toll among coalition forces.
Mr. Rasmussen said he has admired the United States since childhood and considered it “a natural leader of the free world.” The current tension between Washington and Copenhagen — particularly over Greenland — has been “a very painful process,” he said.
“As prime minister of Denmark, I worked closely with the then-President George W. Bush,” he said. “It has been painful to conclude that we have to reduce our dependence on the United States, but that is the state of affairs today.”
