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The European Commission president says increasing defense spending is necessary in “an era of rearmament.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
A European summit on defense and Ukraine is planned this week amid tense transatlantic relations, Reuters reported.<\/p>\n
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday presented a plan to bolster Europe’s defense industry and increase military capabilities.<\/p>\n
“We are in an era of rearmament, and Europe is ready to massively boost its defense spending,” Von der Leyen said.<\/p>\n
She said the plan, dubbed “ReArm Europe,” could mobilize around \u20ac800 billion ($841.5 billion).<\/p>\n
The announcement comes after Washington suspended all military aid to Ukraine, days after US President Donald Trump clashed with Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the Oval Office.<\/p>\n
Von der Leyen had suggested the rearmament plan after emerging from the closed-door meeting on Ukraine at Lancaster House in London over the weekend.<\/p>\n
Merz promises to do ‘whatever it takes’ on defense<\/strong><\/p>\n Friedrich Merz, who’s expected to become Germany’s next chancellor, has announced a political deal to raise hundreds of billions of euros in extra spending on defense and infrastructure.<\/p>\n “In view of the threats to our freedom and peace on our continent, the rule for our defense now has to be ‘whatever it takes’,” he said, BBC reported.<\/p>\n Merz, whose conservatives won Germany’s election last month, said he and his likely coalition partners from the center left would put new proposals to parliament next week.<\/p>\n He has spoken of a need for urgency on German spending in light of “recent decisions by the American government”.<\/p>\n Merz did not elaborate but he has been outspoken in his criticism of Trump’s treatment of Zelensky.<\/p>\n Earlier this week he said European leaders had to show “we are in a position to act independently in Europe”.<\/p>\n At a news conference on Tuesday, alongside leaders from the Social Democrats and his conservative sister party in Bavaria, Merz said Germany was counting on the US to stand by “mutual alliance commitments… but we also know that the resources for our national and alliance defense must now be significantly expanded”.<\/p>\n Merz said, in English, he would do “whatever it takes” to protect freedom and peace – a reference to Mario Draghi’s vow to save the euro in 2012 when he was European Central Bank president.<\/p>\n At the heart of his proposals is a special \u20ac500bn (\u00a3415bn) fund to repair Germany’s creaking infrastructure, as well as loosening stringent budget rules to allow investment in defense.
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