Finnish president: Trump rattles Europe more than Putin
Photo: Alexander Stubb (Getty Images)
President of Finland, Alexander Stubb stated that US President Donald Trump, with his foreign policy, shook Europe even more than Russian leader Vladimir Putin, according to Yle.
"Trump awakened Europe in foreign policy, and Putin – in the field of security. If you look at NATO defense spending, you can see that Europe is preparing for the worst because of Putin. At the same time, Trump quite successfully managed to pressure Europe to increase its defense spending," Stubb noted.
At the same time, the President of Finland claims that Putin failed all his strategic goals.
"This is probably the biggest strategic geopolitical failure in modern history," he emphasized.
According to Stubb, none of the goals set by Putin were achieved. With his actions, he united Europe, expanded NATO to include Finland and Sweden, and effectively increased NATO's defense spending from 2 to 5 percent of GDP.
"If we talk about territorial conquests, he has been trying for 12 years to capture the Donetsk region of Ukraine, half of which he effectively occupied even before the war began," added the Finnish leader.
Background
Earlier, US President Donald Trump repeatedly stated that he expects NATO European member countries to increase defense spending. The target of 5% of GDP was proposed by Washington itself.
Against the backdrop of the agreement among European countries on this target, Pentagon chief Pete Hegset has already acknowledged that they “stepped up.”
Later, at the end of June, NATO leaders during the summit in The Hague pledged to increase defense spending to the level of 5% of GDP over 10 years. This requirement was set by US President Donald Trump.
The new target for defense spending, which must be achieved over the next 10 years, represents a jump of hundreds of billions of dollars per year. Previously, NATO countries were supposed to spend 2% of their GDP on defense.
