LETTER FROM BRUSSELS
In Brussels, two administrations are eyeing each other. They are located just a few kilometers apart, but have been staring at each other for a long time. To the north-east of Brussels, in the immediate vicinity of Zaventem airport, is the headquarters of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) – which brings together thirty-two allies, including the first of them, the United States – and its 4,000 international civil servants, diplomats and soldiers responsible for the collective defense of the European continent.
Further south, around the Schuman roundabout, in the European district, a few tens of thousands of technocrats work for the institutions of the European Union (EU), which asserted itself in the field of defense after the exit of the United Kingdom, in January 2020, and since the adoption, in 2022, of its first “strategic compass”its security and defense development plan, and, of course, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
In two years, the EU has facilitated the transfer of more than 10 billion euros of weapons from its member states to Ukraine, financed the training of 65,000 Ukrainian soldiers, subsidized to the tune of 500 million euros , investments in the defense industry, or even co-financed, for 300 million euros, arms purchases, part of which was intended for kyiv.
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Since 2021, it has also financed defense industry cooperation in research. The new community executive, which will include a new defense commissioner, the Lithuanian Andreas Kubilius, in addition to Kaja Kallas, the future high representative in charge of foreign affairs and security issues, must present a White Paper within three months on the defense.
“A good omen”
So, in what direction will EU and NATO cooperation go while in the United States, Donald Trump is due to return to business in January 2025? The appointment of former Dutch liberal Prime Minister Mark Rutte, one of the EU’s heavyweights over the past fourteen years, as head of NATO, and the arrival of Estonian Kaja Kallas in the role of head of European diplomacy to replace Josep Borrell, tend to reassure those in favor of cooperation. “It bodes well”confides a European diplomat, while the two officials, who know each other well, met officially on Tuesday November 19.
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