Washington is concerned about the EU’s weapons procurement plan, which prioritizes purchasing European weapons. The US believes that this is not the cheapest or fastest way to get weapons to Ukraine and other countries that need them, said outgoing US Ambassador to NATO Julianne Smith.
Amid Trump’s possible return to the US presidency, France has emerged as a leader in making the EU more militarily self-sufficient. The EU’s industrial defense strategy stipulates that the bloc’s 27 countries, 23 of which are NATO members, commit to spending half of their procurement budget on European weapons by 2030 and 60% of that budget by 2035.
Critics of the French efforts say that Paris is simply protecting its own arms industry, even though it cannot match the volume and speed of delivery of other supplier countries such as the US and South Korea.
“I’m not sure that limiting EU purchases will help, particularly our friends in Ukraine,” Smith emphasized.