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european defense

Is Europe finally ready to defend itself?
GZERO Europe

Is Europe finally ready to defend itself?

How serious is Europe about really beefing up its defense and rearming? Carl Bildt, former prime minister of Sweden and co-chair of the European Council on Foreign Relations, shares his perspective on European politics from Tabiano, Italy.

​Vice-President of the European Commission Kaja Kallas arrives at the Consilium building in Brussels, Belgium, on March 20, 2025.
What We're Watching

European leaders offer plans to bolster Ukraine

Though European leaders have been excluded from Donald Trump’s plan to end the war in Ukraine, meetings on Thursday in Brussels and London aimed to demonstrate Europe’s continuing commitment to supply Ukraine with the weapons it needs to repel Russian invaders.

​Germany's chancellor-in-waiting and leader of the Christian Democratic Union party Friedrich Merz reacts as he attends an extraordinary session of the outgoing lower house of parliament, the Bundestag, on March 18, 2025.
What We're Watching

Germany’s vote to boost military spending makes history

Germany’s parliament made history Tuesday as it voted to sharply increase defense spending – by exempting it from limits on the country’s assumption of debt. Germany’s upper house, the Bundesrat, is widely expected to approve this change with a vote scheduled for Friday.

​French President Emmanuel Macron at the Elysee Palace in Paris, France, on March 17, 2025.
What We're Watching

France’s Macron calls on Europe to stop buying American military equipment

Amid Europe’s growing rift with President Donald Trump, a French lawmaker this weekend called on the United States to “give us back the Statue of Liberty” now that Americans “have chosen to side with the tyrants.” But French President Emmanuel Macron came out with a more concrete plan to split with Washington: He's urging allies to buy European missile systems, not American ones.

German Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz
What We're Watching

Germany drops debt brake, passes preliminary agreement to boost defense, infrastructure, and climate spending

Germany’s election-winning center-right Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, led by Friedrich Merz, and the Social Democrats have reached a preliminary agreement with the Green Party on a deal to exclude defense spending from the country’s constitutional debt break and establish a dedicated $545 billion fund for infrastructure investments.

​UK leaders meet to discuss European security
What We're Watching

Europe to “spend, spend, spend” on defense – but how?

EU leaders met in Brussels on Thursday to answer two big questions: How can Europe defend Ukraine in the short term and defend itself in the long term?

Trump hates NATO: Would he leave Canada out in the cold?
GZERO North

Trump hates NATO: Would he leave Canada out in the cold?

Almost lost in the flurry of outrageous things Donald Trump has said at campaign events recently were his comments on the future of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization at a rally in Las Vegas last Saturday.