Summary
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has called for an “immediate” summit between the US, EU, and Western allies to discuss Ukraine following a heated White House meeting between Trump and President Zelenskyy.
The February 28 meeting ended without agreement on a minerals deal after escalating into a confrontation over US aid and peace deal conditions.
Meloni warned that Western division “makes us all weaker” as European leaders reaffirmed support for Ukraine.
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas commented that “the free world needs a new leader,” while European allies worry about being excluded from US-Russia negotiations to end the war.
Your industries can’t even supply artillery and basic equipment to Ukraine, at least nowhere at the level needed to win the war. This is well-known. European leaders have been harping on the need to upgrade capacities.
So, newsflash: sorry, your military industry isn’t up to par yet. The potential is there. Many of the technologies are there. The actual support and capacity to make the most out of that potential is lacking.
This isn’t in any way a controversial opinion. The reality on the ground with constant shortages and European leaders themselves acknowledging the military industry needs more support is well known.
It’s not entirely correct to use the ukranian war as an example of EU industries not being able to supply enough: the US took the lead there an EU expected support to last so they didn’t even make the effort. Most of our industries SELL abroad an ukraine was not needing our support since the US was supposed to cover for it.
Granted the industry is fragmented and not really cohesive, so it would lack in the quantity, but I was merely referring to quality as in we are able to create top of the line weapons and systems that are the best of the world (exluding stealth fighter jets).
If the EU focuses in one direction and stops selling all around… And seeing how it is being basically forced to do so.
This was more of an answer to the guys saying “EU just buys US weapons because those are the best!” Rather than a direct answer to you, but I’d rather answer to someone capable of reasoning…
I mean, if you were actually capable of reasoning you would have picked up early on that I very clearly stated Europe has world-class technology and potential. As you already noted, along with European leaders and industry analysts, fragmentation is a challenge (among other challenges.)
“the US took the lead there an EU expected support to last”
The USA was clear from the get-go that EU needed to provide a lot of support and that we largely view this is a European war, because, you know, it is a European war.
It’s too bad you were so focused on attacking me from the get-go because we actually probably could have had a great and insightful conversation.
Sorry, I wasn’t clear enough since I stated it at the end of the message instead of the beginning. I agree with basically everything you said, except using the ukranian war support as an example of the production capabilities of the EU industry.
Sorry if it came out as if I wanted to attack you on points you agreed upon, I just used you improperly as a way to post those points out more clearly for others to see.
Fair. The whole world is on thin ice and things may snowball quickly. I wish the best for Europe in the months and years ahead.