Europe is our ally, but it cannot be a permanent vassal of the United States for its security and trade, said American Vice President JD Vance on Tuesday.
„We consider Europe our ally. We just want an alliance where Europeans are a little more independent, and our trade and security relationships will reflect that,” said JD Vance, who has repeatedly criticized European leaders.
„It is not good for Europe, and it is not in America’s interest, for Europe to be a permanent vassal of the United States in terms of security,” he insisted in an interview with the British news site UnHerd, AFP reports.
Since his return to the White House, Donald Trump has urged Europeans to spend more on their own defense and has harshly criticized the European Union, accusing it of adopting unfair trade policies towards the United States.
JD Vance: Most European states do not have an army capable of providing reasonable defense
JD Vance has repeatedly criticized European leaders, stating in his February speech in Munich that they do not fight enough against immigration and that freedom of expression is threatened in Europe.
"The reality is that - it's brutally said, but it's true - the entire European security infrastructure has been subsidized by the United States of America for as long as I can remember," JD Vance declared now.
With the exception of France, the United Kingdom, and Poland, he said, "most European states do not have an army capable of providing reasonable defense".
In early March, he shocked Europeans by saying that for Ukraine, concluding an economic agreement with the United States would be "a better security guarantee than 20,000 soldiers from any country that has not fought a war for 30 or 40 years."
"I don't think a more independent Europe is a bad thing for the United States," he insisted, estimating that a stronger Europe could have avoided in the past the strategic disaster of the war launched in Iraq in 2003 by a US-led coalition.
Referring to the negotiations between London and Washington to conclude a bilateral economic agreement, the American Vice President said that there is a high chance that they will lead to an excellent agreement, which is in the interest of both countries.