Defence ministers from Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Poland met in Paris on Tuesday and agreed that Europe must take on more responsibility for its own security, while insisting the United States remains essential to NATO’s future.
The five countries, known as the E5 group, issued a joint statement saying they intend to work closely with Washington and other allies to put that ambition into practice. “We are determined to work in close coordination with the United States and all Allies in order to implement this concrete ambition,” the statement read. It added: “The United States is and will remain an indispensable Ally, and continued United States engagement in European security is essential to a strong and credible NATO.”
French defence minister Catherine Vautrin said the five countries would work together toward “a stronger Europe within an equally stronger NATO,” developing a coordinated plan in “full transparency” with the United States.
European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, who attended the talks, said: “We must continue to modernise our forces and capabilities to build a stronger Europe in a stronger NATO.”
Context: Troop cuts and Trump’s criticism
The statement follows an announcement by Washington in April that it would withdraw around 5,000 troops from Germany — about 15 percent of the 36,000 American personnel stationed there. The Pentagon said at the time the drawdown would happen over six to 12 months.
That decision came weeks after President Donald Trump had publicly questioned the alliance’s value, saying: “I was never swayed by NATO. I always knew they were a paper tiger, and Putin knows that too, by the way.”
The United States remains by far NATO’s largest military spender, accounting for more than $1 trillion of the alliance’s combined $1.8 trillion in defence spending. The other 31 member states together spent roughly $777 billion, underlining how central the US still is to the alliance’s overall capability even as European members pledge to do more.
