The US attitude towards the defense of Europe has changed permanently. A European coalition of the willing, which also includes Ukraine, must be created to protect the continent. This was stated by former NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen.
The coalition of 45 countries willing to agree is already theoretically ready to act as a peacekeeping and training force in Ukraine in the event of a peace agreement with Russia.
Rasmussen, a former close advisor to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, proposes adapting the concept so that an expanded version of the coalition provides security guarantees for continental Europe, not just for Ukraine. He sees the coalition as insurance in case Donald Trump suddenly withdraws US troops and European defense partners are not ready to fill the gap.
"I would propose a coalition of the willing, which would unite a number of European countries capable and willing to do what is necessary to defend the continent, including Ukraine. The force will be led by Europe's two nuclear powers, France and the United Kingdom, Rasmussen said.
His proposal comes days before a meeting of the five leading European defense powers, which are gathering in Berlin to draft a common defense strategy ahead of a NATO summit in Ankara on July 7.
The summit is set to agree a new target of 70 billion euros in additional spending for Ukraine over two years, with the sums contributing to a commitment by individual countries to spend at least 5 percent of GDP on defense by 2035. European defense officials partly support the target as a way to shed light on how support for Ukraine is so heavily concentrated in five countries - Germany, Britain, Sweden, Denmark and the Netherlands.
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has announced a review of the number of US troops in Europe, but for now at the military level there is confidence that the Trump administration's troop reductions will not be so abrupt as to jeopardize Europe's security.
Rasmussen believes that Ukraine should be an integral part of a new European security architecture. "However this conflict ends, we still have an aggressive Russia and we need Ukraine as a bulwark against that aggressor. Ukraine is today the most militarily powerful nation in Europe. It is battle-tested, battle-hardened," he added.
"We usually see Ukraine as a country that needs our help. That is still right, but increasingly we need to see Ukraine as an asset, a country that can actually contribute to European security. And that's why I think we need to strengthen the European pillar in NATO, based on a coalition of the willing, including Ukraine," the former NATO chief noted.
Rasmussen acknowledged that European leaders are noticing a change in Trump's attitude towards the war in Ukraine. According to him, it is time for Europe to make independent decisions, without taking into account how Trump will react. According to him, it is self-deception to think that after Trump the situation will normalize.
The Iran-US conflict, in which Russia clearly showed its support for Iran, may have stimulated a new way of thinking about Russia in the White House, Rasmussen claims. He stressed that the task of the NATO summit in Ankara is to use the potential for a new approach to reinforce the message that neither NATO nor the United States will abandon their support for Ukraine.
He is encouraged by indications that Ukraine will receive licenses to produce weapons developed by the United States, including interceptor missiles and long-range missiles.
Rasmussen urged the EU not to prematurely appoint its own negotiator with Russia. According to him, before an appointment is made, there must be assurance that the person will negotiate from a position of strength.