Photo: Ronka Oberhammer/DW
The CEO of the German company Rheinmetall, Armin Papperger, said that Europe is to blame for its absence at the table of negotiations between the US and Russia over Ukraine. He attributed this to decades of underfunding of the defence sector, which made European countries weak in the eyes of Washington and Moscow, the Financial Times reports .
According to Papperger, while the United States and Russia are deciding the future of Ukraine, Europeans have become like “children at a separate table”, as they have spent only 1% of GDP on defence in recent decades. He stressed that European leaders will have to seriously reconsider their policies to regain real weight in the international arena.
Despite the fact that since 2021, EU defence spending has increased by more than 30% and reached 1.9% of GDP, this is not enough, according to the expert. Especially against the background of US President Donald Trump’s demand that NATO allies spend at least 5% of GDP on defence.
Papperger’s statements came against the backdrop of Trump’s personal contact with Vladimir Putin, without prior agreement with European partners and Kyiv, calling for the immediate start of peace talks.
