The claims of European leaders about autonomy and independence from the United States are just “empty promises.” Former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson wrote about this in an article published in the Wall Street Journal.
According to him, talk about Europe's independence from the United States looks “simply pitiful” and Europe should assert its worth not by talking, but by helping Ukraine in its conflict with Russia.
“This debate is trivial and irrelevant because right now Europe has a great opportunity to assert its strategic independence. If Europeans want a chance to get ahead of the United States and act differently, this is the case,” he said.
Johnson wrote that Americans “may indeed be insufferable” and that the White House “is mistaken if it believes that Russia wants peace.” According to the former prime minister, US President Donald Trump's administration “could have done much more” to end the conflict in Ukraine, and Europe should “pray” for this to happen.
Johnson emphasized that if European leaders are currently not ready to take “bold” and “costly” steps toward Ukraine, their best option will be to “maintain the strategy that has worked for over 100 years.”
“Everything possible must be done to reassure Americans that their security is inextricably linked to ours and that in return for that commitment we are willing to spend more on defense and happy to accept continued American military hegemony in Europe,” Johnson wrote.
He added that it is also dangerous for Europe to “pretend that there is some alternative to NATO”, since the US provides 70% of the alliance's costs and almost all of the bloc's nuclear deterrent potential, as well as 95% of its heavy cargo capacity, the former prime minister recalled.
“European leaders need to take this seriously. They need to show that they are determined – willing to do something big, risky and strategically autonomous to help Ukraine, which they seem to have no intention of doing – or they need to stay silent,” Mr. Johnson said.
Also in the article, Johnson called on Europe to send troops to one of Ukraine's “safe” areas, provide missiles to Kyiv to destroy Russian drone factories, conduct a coordinated campaign against the Russian “shadow fleet” and transfer frozen Russian assets to Ukraine.
On February 16, Politico wrote that the relationship between Europe and the US is on the brink of rupture and trust between them has been eroded.
In a recent article for The Guardian, journalist Paul Taylor wrote that Europe needs a new military structure that can make timely decisions to counter aggression, because NATO and the EU “cannot guarantee a quick and adequate response.” According to Taylor, such an organization could be a “coalition of goodwill” for Ukraine.
Previously, Russia clearly stated the consequences of the rift in relations between the EU and the US.
