Comment by danieldk
The US promised to protect Ukraine in the Budapest Memorandum, for which Ukraine had to give their nukes to Russia.
It's embarrassing for Europe that Ukraine is relying on the US instead of Europe
Europe has spent more on military aid to Ukraine than the US now.
https://www.ifw-kiel.de/publications/news/ukraine-support-tr...
Even though the US vowed to protect Ukraine in the Budapest Memorandum.
It's embarrassing for Europe how little they contribute to NATO
Before Trump, non-US NATO spent 425 billion and the US 654 billion:
https://www.nato.int/nato_static_fl2014/assets/pdf/2024/6/pd...
So it’s true that Europe/Canada spent less, but it comes with a bit fat asterisk that the US also wants to project power in the pacific/Asia, whereas European defense is primarily focused on avoiding Russian aggression (+ peace missions + supporting the US in various operations to give them more legitimacy).
Europe should be thanking Trump for waking them up to the reality that has always been the case through his boorish negotiation.
That credit should go to Putin, European spending has grown rapidly since the annexation of crimea.
The credit the Trump should get: stop buying US weapons as quickly as we can and focus on non-US alternatives. It’s going to take a while, but US material has certainly become less attractive.
> Before Trump, non-US NATO spent 425 billion and the US 654 billion:
And I bet a significant proportion of that 425 billion was spent on US weapons. I wonder if anyone has that number