As U.S. President Donald Trump keeps pressing North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) members to increase defense spending, European allies are moving to bolster the forces required under NATO defense plans. Leading the push, Germany is advancing ways to speed up weapons procurement in Europe, including proposing joint production of key U.S. weapons. The focus of security cooperation appears to be shifting beyond simple burden-sharing talks toward strengthening weapons procurement and production and supply chains.
On the 2nd, local time, the Financial Times (FT) reported that Matthew Whitaker, the U.S. ambassador to NATO, expressed the view that members that meet a defense budget target of 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) could receive benefits such as expanded procurement of U.S. weapons and greater defense industry cooperation. Whitaker said, "Those who do more will get more goodies." The remark signaled strengthened cooperation with allies that make higher defense contributions.
Since returning to office in Jan. last year, President Trump has repeatedly demanded that European allies increase defense spending, saying they rely excessively on U.S. security. Recently, he has argued that although the United States bears the largest expense in NATO, it is not receiving a role and treatment commensurate with that, pressuring allies to expand their security contributions.
Amid this trend, Europe is accelerating efforts to strengthen defense industry capabilities. According to the FT, the German government proposed to the United States a plan to jointly produce Tomahawk cruise missiles and Patriot PAC-3 interceptors in Germany. The idea is to reduce the production burden on U.S. defense companies while speeding up weapons acquisition in Europe to respond to security uncertainties.
Germany's proposal also aligns with Europe's rearmament drive following Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With demand rising for long-range strike capabilities and air defense systems, and with concerns growing that instability in the Middle East could delay supplies of U.S. weapons, Germany aims to jointly produce key U.S. weapons in Europe to increase supply chain stability and procurement speed.
European countries are also continuing rearmament moves. They appear to be trying to reinforce on their own the forces required under NATO defense plans. Reuters reported on the 1st, local time, citing multiple sources, that European allies have filled most of the major capability gaps—such as fighter jets, drones, aerial refueling tankers, maritime patrol aircraft, and destroyers—that the United States reduced in NATO defense plans.
Defense industry investment at the NATO level is also expected to expand. According to the FT, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said, "Hundreds of billions of dollars in new defense industry contracts will be announced at next week's summit." He said Europe and Canada have placed orders worth about $300 billion (about 462 trillion won) with U.S. defense companies. That supports roughly 195,000 jobs in the United States.
However, U.S. and European interests do not fully align. The United States is concerned that a defense industry fund pursued by the European Union (EU) could be operated in a way that excludes U.S. corporations and non-EU countries. Europe, meanwhile, is pushing for defense industry self-reliance but still relies heavily on the United States for key weapons systems and technologies.
At the NATO summit to be held on the 7th–8th, not only increasing defense spending but also procuring and jointly producing U.S. weapons, as well as expanding defense industry supply chains, are expected to be discussed as key agenda items.