Europe and the United Kingdom are taking a leading role on defense and supporting Ukraine, just as the United States has demanded, British Defence Secretary John Healey told his American counterpart Pete Hegseth on Thursday.
Healey and Hegseth’s meeting at the Pentagon was their first since the American defense chief’s trip to European capitals last month, where he warned that Europe “can’t make an assumption that America’s presence will last forever” and called on the bloc to “step up” to safeguard its own security.
Britain and Europe have done just that, Healey argued Thursday.
“You challenged Europe to step up. You challenged us to step up on Ukraine, on defense spending, on European security,” he said. “And I say to you that we have, we are and we will further.”
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer announced last month that the U.K. will hike defense spending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2027.
After hosting European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in London, Starmer said the U.K. was prepared to send troops to Ukraine as part of a peacekeeping force to underpin a peace deal with Russia.
Britain, France and Ukraine are working on the terms of such a deal to present to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Hegseth called Britain and France’s initiative “very encouraging to watch.”
“What the president has also said time and time again is, let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” he added.
“In order to maintain enduring peace, there’s a security aspect to it,” Hegseth said. “The U.K. and France have pledged, along with others, to be the core part of that, there will be other aspects that are part of further terms of the negotiation.”
Meanwhile, the leaders of the EU’s 27 countries held an emergency summit in Brussels on Thursday to thrash out a new defense plan, unanimously endorsing a proposal to boost defense spending by up to €800 billion across the bloc.
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