Eduardo González
Foreign Minister José Manuel Albares warned on Tuesday, January 27, that, given the abrupt geostrategic shift by the United States under the presidency of Donald Trump, European commercial and security sovereignty depends on “transforming its economic power into political power” and on the creation of “a true European Army.”
On Monday, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte warned the European Parliament that “if anyone still thinks that the European Union, or Europe as a whole, can defend itself without the United States, they can keep dreaming.”
According to the Dutch leader, if Europeans truly want to build a new defensive alliance without the United States, they should allocate not five percent, but ten percent of their Gross Domestic Product (GDP) to security and defense, in addition to developing their own nuclear deterrent capability. “It costs billions and billions of euros, and in this scenario, they would lose the ultimate guarantee of our freedom: the American nuclear umbrella,” he added.
“I disagree,” José Manuel Albares declared on Tuesday in an interview with Radio France International (RFI). “The transatlantic relationship is mutually beneficial for Americans and Europeans, both from a trade perspective and from the perspective of Euro-Atlantic security, and we are working to ensure that it remains so,” he asserted.
However, he warned, “on the other side of the Atlantic, from both a trade and security perspective, we see new positions emerging,” and in this context, for Europeans, “it is imperative” to “take control of our future, both from a trade and a security standpoint.”
“It’s not about Europe becoming an aggressive force, but about deterrence; it’s about Europeans being able to defend themselves and their own people,” he continued. “Of course it’s possible: we have the means, we have the capabilities; we can do it, but above all, we must do it,” he added. Therefore, Albares warned, “this is the moment for Europe to transform its economic power into political power, and that requires a European Army.”
“To achieve European sovereignty, the first thing we must do is better integrate our defense industries; that is a first step, and we Europeans have the capacity to offer our own capabilities,” he explained. “Another very simple step is to form a coalition of European security volunteers, in the same way that we have formed volunteer coalitions for foreign scenarios in Europe; we can do it, and all of this must culminate in a true European Army,” he insisted.
According to Albares, “Europe was built from the outset to tell the whole world, including European states, never again to war.” Therefore, he warned, “in order to continue living as we do, to defend our way of life, the values of democracy, security, and peace on the continent, we must have deterrent capabilities, to tell the whole world that coercion, whether commercial or the threat of the use of force, cannot be exercised in Europe.”
For all these reasons, Albares cautioned against the tendency to “leave this for tomorrow, saying it’s not possible.” “It takes a long time to establish a European defense and a European defense industry; it doesn’t happen overnight,” but “if we start today, it will take less time than if we start tomorrow,” he stated.