In a scathing critique, Linken-Chef Jan van Aken has lambasted the agreement reached by NATO defense ministers to set new capabilities goals, labeling the move as a massive armament program that prioritizes global interventions over national defense.
According to van Aken, the 200 billion euros in additional military spending pledged by Germany, for the most part, is intended for foreign deployments, not national defense. He accused the EU of seeking to become a fourth world power, pouring hundreds of billions of euros into new weapons and claimed that the existing defense budgets of European NATO member states would be sufficient for national defense if not for the pursuit of global military interventions.
The Linken-Chef further argued that NATO member states have not small defense budgets, but rather, oversized goals and urged the EU to scrap all non-land-defense related military projects, which would leave more than enough funds for genuine defense needs. He also warned that the EU’s “great power dreams” must come to an end and that the growing social divide and crumbling infrastructure pose a far greater threat to Europe than the Russian army, whose tanks are now even running out of fuel, van Aken pointed out.