World News

36624 readers

486 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

Please only post links to actual news sources, no tabloid sites, etc
No NSFW content
No hate speech, bigotry, propaganda, etc

founded 5 years ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

240

Trump shares the message he receives from NATO leader Mark Rutte (lemmy.ml)

submitted 2 days ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

149 comments fedilink hide all child comments

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago* (last edited 2 days ago) (1 children)

This new agreement, with NATO signatories needing to commit 5% of their GDP, feels like a grift for the benefit of U.S. defense contractors. The U.S. cannot be trusted to actually honor their agreements anymore, so why pay more into their alliance? Is Europe really that scared of further Russian aggression?

They're massively investing in European defense industry, not just buying more from the US. They are scared of Russian aggression and they are scared the US will not honor NATO agreements which is why they're committing so hard to defense spending. Also, I believe it's 3.5% for military and 1.5% for infrastructure.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 2 days ago (1 children)

False. Europe is spending big money on American weapons. The independence story was only an excuse to get more money.

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/us-defence-firms-chase-european-military-spending-wave-2025-06-18/

As for the Russia story, nice to see Red Scare works as good as in America when they dismantled their healthcare for the military industrial complex.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 2 days ago

They are also spending big on domestic arms production. France will be a big winner out of this since they've long valued independent military arms production and the rest of Europe will want to buy French stuff (yes along with American stuff) while they get their arms production up and running. South Korea is also a big arms supplier internationally.

The reduction in US support for NATO is largely part of a pivot to focusing on Taiwan and China. The US military industry would love it if the US focused on both and kept cozy relations with europe. I'm sure they're happy with the whole world increasing defense spending amid rising tensions, but they aren't happy about the US scaring away customers. I hate how involved the US military is globally but acting like Trump is some mastermind of American imperialism is reductive and giving him too much credit. The thought that Europe shouldn't be worried about Russia (the ones currently invading a European country) is bonkers.